Justice Balakrishnan is new NHRC chief

Sixty-five-year-old Balakrishnan, who will be the first Dalit NHRC chief, will take charge as the sixth chairman of the commission on Monday.

According to a government notification, Justice Balakrishnan, who demitted his office as Chief Justice of India on May 11, will remain chairman of the commission for five years or till he attains 70.

The NHRC chairman post had been lying vacant since May 9, 2009, after the retirement of Justice Rajendra Babu.

President Pratibha Patil gave her approval to Balakrishnan’s appointment after recommendation by a Parlimentary committee headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, sources said.

Justice Balakrishnan enrolled as an advocate of the Kerala Bar Council on March 16, 1968. He was appointed a Munsif in the Kerala Judicial Service on January 10, 1973. He later resigned from the service and resumed practice as an advocate in the Kerala High Court.
On September 26, 1985, he was appointed as a judge of the Kerala High Court. He became a Supreme Court judge on June 08, 2000, and then Chief Justice of India on January 14, 2007.