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 occasion of body's 28th Foundation Day. dressing event, 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 North East". 

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

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

Deces-long career

Born on September 3, 1955, to Mhya Presh High Court judge HG Mishra, Arun Mishra practiced in constitutional, civil, service, and criminal matters. 11 years after being appointed as a judge of MP High Court, he was appointed as Chief Justice of Rajasthan High Court on November 26, 2010. He was elevated as a judge of apex court on July 7, 2014, when he was functioning as 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 Gujarat Police, Sahara-Birla diaries case, medical college bribery case and suo moto case pertaining to sexual harassment charges against n CJI Ranjan Gogoi and so forth. While he retired on September 3, 2020, he took over as NHRC chief on June 2. Mishra faced a lot of criticism for his praise of PM while delivering vote of thanks at inaugural session of an international judicial conference in February 2020.

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