Ex-High Court CJ is new rights body chief

Kolkata: Former chief justice of the Calcutta high court Girish Chandra Gupta will be the new chairperson of the West Bengal Human Rights Commission. The decision was taken by the special committee headed by chief minister Mamata Banerjee during a meeting at Speaker Biman Banerjee’s office on Friday.

The choice of Mr Gupta for the post was unanimous as Leader of Opposition Abdul Mannan too supported the decision.

“Today at the meeting it has been decided that Girish Gupta will be appointed as the next chairman of the state human rights commission,” state parliamentary affairs minister Partha Chatterjee said.

At present, the WBHRC is headed by former director general of state police Naparajit Mukherjee, a retired IPS officer, who is the commission’s acting chairperson. He was appointed as the chairman following the resignation of Ashok Ganguly in January 2014 amidst a major controversy. Opposition parties had expressed reservation over a former DG heading the important body, which had been without a full-time chairperson ever since Mr Ganguly’s exit

With Justice Gupta becoming the new head of the WBHRC, Mr Mukherjee will act as a member of the panel.