New
Delhi: Former Supreme Court
judge Justice Arun Mishra on Wednesday took charge as the new chairperson of
the National Human Rights Commission, officials said.
Justice Mishra, who had created a flutter after praising Prime
Minister Narendra Modi at an event last year, is the eighth chairperson of the
commission.
Speaking at the International Judicial Conference 2020, he had
termed PM Modi as an “internationally acclaimed visionary” and a “versatile
genius, who thinks globally and acts locally”.
Complimenting the Prime Minister and Union Law Minister Ravi
Shankar Prasad for doing away with 1,500 obsolete laws, justice Mishra had said
that India is a responsible and most friendly member of the international
community under the “stewardship” of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Justice Mishra is also the first non-CJI to be appointed to the
NHRC chief post since the amendment of the Protection of Human Rights Act in
2019.
The post of NHRC chairperson was lying vacant after justice HL
Dattu, a former Chief Justice of India (CJI), completed his tenure early
December last year.
“Justice Arun Mishra today joined as the new chairperson of the
National Human Rights Commission. Two panel members have also joined,” a senior
official aid.
Rajiv Jain, former director of Intelligence Bureau, and justice
MM Kumar, former chief justice of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court joined as
members of the commission, he said.
Justice Mishra, who had become a Supreme Court judge on July 7,
2014, demitted office in September 2020. During his tenure, he dealt with
several politically-sensitive cases, and many activists then had opposed the
allocation of such cases to him.
Justice Mishra had also headed a bench that had directed in 2019
demolition of illegal flats built on the coastal zone of Kochi's Maradu, in
accordance with a time schedule provided by the Kerala government, and also
payment of ? 25 lakh as interim compensation to each flat owner.
His predecessor, justice Dattu, had joined the NHRC on February
29, 2016, after retiring as the CJI on December 2, 2015.
Justice
Mishra was born in 1955 and after completing his studies, joined the Bar in
1978 and practiced in constitutional, civil, industrial, service and criminal
matters, the NHRC said in a statement.
He was elected as the youngest chairman of the
Bar Council of India in 1998 and particularly focused on the improvement of
legal education, it said.
During his chairmanship, the Bar Council of India
decided to close the evening law colleges and also decided that 5-year law
course should be started instead of three years course in all the colleges.
More than two hundred sub-standard law colleges were closed by the BCI. Also,
amount of medical aid to lawyers was enhanced, the rights panel said.
“He was instrumental in the drafting and
implementation of Foreign Law Degree Recognition Rules of 1997 under Advocates
Act, 1961; Bar Council of India Employees Service Rules,1996 and Rules
pertaining to Foreign Lawyers Conditions of Practice in India,” it added.
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.
Justice Mishra was elevated as a judge of the
Supreme Court of India on July 7, 2014 and held the position till his
superannuation on September 2, 2020, it said.
“During his tenure as a Supreme Court Judge,
he delivered 236 judgements. Out of this 199 were in two judges bench, 32 in
three judges Bench and five in five judges bench,'“ the statement said.
Prior to his appointment, senior Congress
leader and Leader of Opposition in 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.
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