The Hindu : Anand appointed NHRC chief

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 13, 2003

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Anand appointed NHRC chief

By Our New Delhi Bureau

NEW DELHI Feb. 12. The President has appointed Justice A.S. Anand, retired Chief Justice of India, as Chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission to succeed Justice J. S. Verma, who retired last month.

The President also appointed another retired Judge of the Supreme Court, K. T. Thomas, to fill the vacancy caused by the retirement of Justice K. Ramaswamy. However, the Commission has one more vacancy to be filled.

A high-level committee headed by the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, at a meeting on January 27, cleared the names of Mr. Justice Anand and Mr. Justice Thomas and the former Chief Secretary of Madhya Pradesh, Nirmala Buch, for the three vacancies and sent them to the President.

The former Law Minister, Ram Jethmalani, had earlier written to the Prime Minister, and the Deputy Prime Minister, L. K. Advani, not to appoint Mr. Justice Anand in view of the alleged controversy surrounding his date of birth. However, Mr. Jethmalani's campaign came to an end when the President cleared the former CJI's name for the post.

Mr. Justice Anand joined the Bar in 1964 and practised in the Punjab and Haryana High Court. He was appointed a judge of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court in 1975. After serving as the Chief Justice of Madras High Court, he was elevated to the Supreme Court in November 1991 and became the Chief Justice in October 1998. He retired in October 2001. Mr. Justice Thomas, who has been appointed a member of the NHRC, retired in January last. He has pronounced several landmark judgments, giving a new dimension to the law of criminal jurisprudence. Presiding over a Division Bench, he had admitted a special leave petition in the `TANSI case' involving the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa.

The NHRC remains a member short after Ms. Buch today "withdrew'' her name from the list sent to the President. Ms. Buch was censured by a judicial inquiry for not having taken necessary action to contain the communal riots in Bhopal in 1992. The inquiry was headed by the Madhya Pradesh High Court Judge, S. K. Dubey.

Ms. Buch was removed as Chief Secretary pending completion of the inquiry. The inquiry concluded that although she had been informed of the lack of necessary forces to control the riots, she had done nothing to augment the forces in time. Apparently after a query from the Rashtrapathi Bhavan, she was advised by her "well-wishers'' to send in her regret.

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