Justice Mishra first non-CJI to head NHRC

Rules were amended in 2019 to allow retired SC judges to hold post

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Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 2

Justice Arun Mishra, a former Supreme Court judge, on Wednesday took over as the chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission, which was headless since December 3 last year when Justice HL Dattu completed his tenure as its chief.

Justice Mishra is the first non-CJI to be appointed as the NHRC chairperson since the amendment to the Protection of Human Rights Act in 2019 and the eighth chairperson of the human rights body.

Justice Mishra had attracted widespread criticism after he heaped praise on the Prime Minister at the ‘International Judicial Conference 2020’ and described Narendra Modi as an “internationally acclaimed visionary” and a “versatile genius, who thinks globally and acts locally”.

Justice Mishra’s appointment as the new chairperson of the NHRC comes almost nine months after he retired as a judge of the Supreme Court – a position he held for more than six years between July 7, 2014, and September 2, 2020.

Former Chief Justice of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court Justice MM Kumar and former Intelligence Bureau Director Rajiv Jain also joined the NHRC as its members, the commission announced.

Senior Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, dissociating himself from the process of selection of the new chairperson and members of the NHRC.

As a Supreme Court judge, he dealt with many politically sensitive cases and headed a Bench that directed in 2019 the demolition of illegal flats built on the coastal zone of Kochi’s Maradu.

He was appointed Judge of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh on October 25, 1999, and appointed as the Chief Justice of Rajasthan High Court on November 26, 2010, and held the office till his appointment as the Chief Justice of the High Court at Calcutta on December 14, 2012.