NHRC chief Arun Mishra lauds Amit Shah for 'peace' in J&K; waxes eloquent on human rights

On Tuesday, National Human Rights Commission chairperson Arun Mishra heaped praise on Union Home Minister Amit Shah on the occasion of the body's 28th Foundation Day. Addressing the event, the retired Supreme Court judge said, "I am very pleased to welcome Honourable Home Minister Amit Shah. Because of your untiring efforts, a new era of peace and law and order has dawned in Jammu & Kashmir and the North East". 

This is being perceived as a reference to the situation in J&K after the abrogation of Article 370 and the agreements signed with militant groups in the North East to bring about peace. Elaborating on the importance of human rights in India, he added, "Everyone has the freedom to construct temples, mosques and churches. Such freedom is not available in many other countries".

He also claimed that it has become a norm to accuse India of human rights violations at the behest of "foreign forces". Arun Mishra opined, "The murderers of innocent people cannot be glorified. Such terrorists cannot be called freedom fighters. Human rights defenders should strongly condemn political violence and terrorism. The indifference in this regard gives birth to fundamentalism. History will never forgive us for this".  

Decades-long career

Born on September 3, 1955, to Madhya Pradesh High Court judge HG Mishra, Arun Mishra practiced in constitutional, civil, service, and criminal matters. 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.

During his tenure as an SC judge, he was a part of benches that delivered judgments in 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 and the suo moto case pertaining to sexual harassment charges against the then CJI Ranjan Gogoi and so forth. While he retired on September 3, 2020, he took over as the NHRC chief on June 2. Mishra faced a lot of criticism for his praise of the PM while delivering the vote of thanks at the inaugural session of an international judicial conference in February 2020.

He remarked, “India is a responsible and most friendly member of the international community under the stewardship of internationally acclaimed visionary Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi. We thank the versatile genius who thinks globally and acts locally Shri Narendra Modi for his inspiring speech which will act as a catalyst in initiating the deliberations and setting the agenda for the conference”.