New Delhi: Former Supreme Court judge V Ramasubramanian on Monday assume charge of the chairperson of the NHRC, as he emphasised that human rights are "deeply embedded" in India's cultural fabric, and promoting and protecting these requires a "collaborative effort" among various stakeholders. The National Human Rights Commission on December 23 announced his appointment as the new chief of the rights panel.
Justice Ramasubramanian today assumed the charge of the chairperson, and Justice Bidyut Ranjan Sarangi as the Member of the Commission, at an event function organised at the Manvadhikar Bhawan here to welcome them and Priyank Kanoongo, who joined as a Member of the pane last week, the NHRC said in a statement. They were appointed by President Droupadi Murmu on December 21, it said.
Addressing the gathering, Justice Ramasubramanian highlighted India's ancient tradition of valuing and practising human rights, "even before the concept became globally recognised". Citing Tamil poet Thiruvalluvar, he emphasised that human rights are "deeply embedded in India's cultural fabric". He also stressed that promoting and protecting human rights requires a "collaborative effort among various stakeholders", the statement said.
Born on June 30, 1958, in Mannargudi, Tamil Nadu, Justice Ramasubramanian is a "distinguished former judge of the apex court". He completed his B.Sc. in Chemistry from Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda College, Chennai, and later pursued law at the Madras Law College. He was enrolled as a member of the Bar on February 16, 1983, and practised for 23 years in the Madras High Court.
Justice Ramasubramanian served as an Additional Judge of the Madras High Court in 2006 and was made a permanent judge in 2009. He was transferred to the High Court of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh in 2016, and after bifurcation, continued his tenure in the Telangana High Court, the statement said.
"In 2019, he was appointed Chief Justice of the Himachal Pradesh High Court and, later that year, became a judge of the Supreme Court of India. He retired from the Supreme Court on June 29, 2023, after authoring 102 judgments, including in landmark cases such as the 2016 demonetisation policy and matters involving the validity of circumstantial evidence in bribery cases," it said.
Prio to his appointment, the post of NHRC chairperson had been lying vacant since Justice (retd) Arun Kumar Mishra completed his tenure on June 1. Mishra served as the eighth chairperson of the rights panel and was appointed to its top post in June 2021. On December 18, a high-powered committee led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a meeting to select the next chairperson of the NHRC, sources earlier said.
A former chief justice of India or a retired judge of the top court are appointed as NHRC chairperson by the president on the recommendation of the selection committee. Former CJIs H L Dattu and K G Balakrishnan are among those who have headed the rights body in the past.
