NEW DELHI, 30 Dec: Former Supreme Court judge V Ramasubramanian on Monday assumed 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 (NHRC) had on 23 December announced his appointment as the new chief of the rights panel.
Justice Ramasubra-manian on Monday assumed the charge of the chairperson, and Justice Bidyut Ranjan Sarangi as the member of the Commission, at afunction organised at the Manvadhikar Bhavan 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 21 December, it said.
Addressing the gathering, Justice Ramasubra-manian 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 30 June, 1958, in Mannargudi, Tamil Nadu, Justice Ramasubramanian is a “distinguished former judge of the apex court.”
He completed his BSc 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 16 February, 1983, and practised for 23 years at 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 29 June, 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.
Prior to his appointment, the post of NHRC chairperson had been lying vacant since retired justice Arun Kumar Mishra completed his tenure on 1 June. (PTI)
