Ex-Supreme Court judge V Ramasubramanian appointed NHRC chief

NEW DELHI: V Ramasubramanian, former Supreme Court judge, was appointed ninth chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission of India (NHRC) on Monday.

The NHRC chairperson post was lying vacant since former Supreme Court judge Justice (retd) Arun Kumar Mishra completed his tenure on June 1.

Ramasubramanian, who served as top court judge from 2019 to 2023, also worked as the Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh high court.

In 2006, he was appointed as an additional judge of the Madras high court before he was transferred on his own request to the high court of judicature at Hyderabad for the states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh in 2016.

After the bifurcation and the creation of a separate high court for Andhra Pradesh, he was retained as a Judge of the high court of Telangana at Hyderabad in 2019.

He also became the first judge to hold a hearing over Skype, when he responded to an urgent call to hear the case concerning 89 inmates of an orphanage.

Ramasubramanian's bench also batted for freedom of expression and said defamation proceedings should be decriminalised, in line with trends across the world.

On December 18, a high-powered committee led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi reportedly held a meeting to select the next chairperson of NHRC.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and party leader Rahul Gandhi attended the meeting as leaders of the opposition in Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha respectively, they had said.

Justice (retd) Mishra served as the eighth chairperson of the rights panel after being appointed in June 2021.

Earlier, reports also claimed that ex-Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud could be considered for a role as NHRC chairperson. However, he snubbed the reports and called it "untrue".

"This is untrue. Presently, I am enjoying my retired life," the country's 50th CJI, who demitted office on November 10, told the news agency PTI.
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