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Former Supreme Court Judge, Justice Arun Kumar Mishra on Wednesday took over as the Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). He had retired from the apex court in September last year.

The post of the NHRC chief had been lying vacant since justice H L Dattu, ex-chief justice of India, had completed his tenure in December 2020. The name of Justice Mishra was recommended by a panel comprising PM Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, Harivansh, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge.

He practised from 1978 to October 1999 in Constitutional, Civil, Industrial, Criminal and Service Matters in the Bench of High Court of Madhya Pradesh at Gwalior. He was elected the youngest chairperson of the Bar Council of India in 1998-99. He was appointed judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court in October 1999. He later served as chief Justice of Rajasthan High Court and Calcutta High Court before being elevated to the Supreme Court on July 7, 2014.

Tenure as High Court Judge –

He decided on issues such as shutting down evening law colleges and over 200 sub-standard law colleges, commencing a 5-year Law degree course, and enhancing the amount of medical aid to lawyers were taken. He also led the Indian Bar delegation to the Commonwealth Law Conference held in Malaysia in September 1999 and chaired one session there. It is to be noted that 11 years after being appointed as a judge of the MP High Court, he was appointed as the Chief Justice of the Rajasthan High Court on November 26, 2010. He was elevated as a judge of the apex court on July 7, 2014, when he was functioning as the Calcutta HC Chief Justice.

Tenure as a Supreme Court Judge -

He authored 132 judgments and was part of 540 benches that delivered judgments. He was part of  sensitive matters such as ex-IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt's plea seeking a fair probe into 2 FIRs lodged against him by the Gujarat Police, the Sahara-Birla diaries case, the medical college bribery case, the Suo Moto case pertaining to sexual harassment charges against the then CJI Ranjan Gogoi. He also headed the Bench where he sentenced senior advocate Prashant Bhushan over two tweets, it slammed the press conference held by 4 sitting SC judges in January 2018.