. Arun mishra to head NHRC){kind=link}
Former Supreme Court judge Arun Mishra is the newly appointed chairperson of NHRC (National human rights Commission). The selection committee was led by PM Modi where the name of Justice Arun Kumar Mishra was selected along with two other members in the league including Rajeev Jain (Former Intelligence Bureau Director) and Mahesh Mittal Kumar (Former Chief justice of J&K High Court).
The controversial leader Arun Mishra once described PM Narendra Modi as an “Internationally acclimated visionary who could think globally and act locally”. The high-powered selection committee that appointed the new NHRC chairperson included PM Modi, Amit Shah (Home Minister), Om Birla (Lok Sabha Speaker), and the leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge.
Earlier, Mr. Kharge raised his concern over appointing at least one representative from either Dalit, Adivasi, or Minorities community. However, the selection committee did not accept his suggestion even after Mr. Kharge pointed out his complaint several times.
Instead of looking for fresh or suggested names, the selection committee decided to go with the already shortlisted names. Mr. Mallikarjun Kharge even said, “Most of the complaints we receive in the NHRC are related to crimes committed against minorities. Hence, it would be a great initiative if the NHRC is led by a representative who belongs to this community.”.
In the last 27 years of the timeline, this is the first time when the NHRC has appointed a chairperson as someone other than a former Chief Justice of India. For the last five months, NHRC has been running without a full-time chairperson. NHRC was last led by Justice HL Dattu who retired in December 2020.