Retired Justice V. Ramasubramanian Appointed Chairperson of NHRC
The President of India has appointed retired Supreme Court Justice V. Ramasubramanian as the Chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), a position that has been vacant since June of this year.
Additionally, the President has appointed Priyank Kanoongo and retired Justice Bidyut Ranjan Sarangi as Members of NHRC-India.
A high-power committee led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi met on December 18 to select the next chairperson of NHRC. Both Leaders of the Opposition (LoPs), Mallikarjun Kharge in the Rajya Sabha and Rahul Gandhi in the Lok Sabha also attended the meeting.
A well-known scholar in Tamil and a master of the art of writing judgments, Justice Ramasubramanian was born on June 30, 1958, and obtained his bachelor’s degree in science from Vivekananda College in Chennai before graduating in law from the Madras Law College and enrolling as a member of the Bar on February 16, 1983.
After 23 years of practice as a lawyer in the High Court and other judicial fora, he was elevated as an additional judge of the Madras High Court on July 31, 2006, and as a permanent judge on November 9, 2009. In 2016, he was transferred to the High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad for the States of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, and after the bifurcation, he served in the Telangana High Court. On June 22, 2019, he was sworn in as the Chief Justice of the Himachal Pradesh High Court, and later, on September 23, 2019, he ascended to the Supreme Court of India.
During his Supreme Court tenure, which ended upon his retirement on June 29, 2023, Justice Ramasubramanian authored 102 judgments. His judicial contributions include participation in significant cases such as the 2016 Demonetization policy and the validity of circumstantial evidence in bribery
Justice Bidyut Ranjan Sarangi was elevated as a Permanent Judge of the Orissa High Court in 2013. Over nearly 11 years, he disposed of over 152,000 cases and authored nearly 1,500 reported judgments, significantly contributing to public trust in the judiciary. He was appointed as the Chief Justice of the High Court of Jharkhand in July, 2024.
Priyank Kanoongo has been a steadfast advocate for child rights and education in India. Appointed as the Chairperson of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) in 2018, he was reappointed for a second term beginning October 17, 2021. His career demonstrates a strong commitment to upholding justice at various levels of the judiciary.