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 an SC judge – a position he held for more than six years between July 7, 2014, and September 2, 2020.

Ex-Chief Justice of the J&K High Court Justice MM Kumar and Intelligence Bureau ex-Director Rajiv Jain also joined the NHRC as its members.

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.

In his letter to the PM, he said he had raised concerns over the manner in which the NHRC appointments were made.

The government refused to consider any person belonging to SC, ST, OBC or minority communities, he said. “Moreover, the appointments smack of partisanship & quid pro quo. I strongly condemn this,” he tweeted.

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.