ELECTION 99
US EDITION
COLUMNISTS
DIARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Search Rediff

J S Verma to head NHRC

Jagdish Sharan Verma, former chief justice of India, has been appointed chairman of the National Human Rights Commission.

He succeeds Justice (retired) M N Venkatachaliah, another former chief justice of the Supreme Court, who demitted office on October 31.

Justice Verma, who retired from the Supreme Court two years ago, shot to fame when he headed the bench that forced the Central Bureau of Investigation to inquire into the infamous havala [an illegal foreign currency exchange mechanism] scandal that broke in 1995 with the revelation of the Jain diaries and sucked in several leading politicians. Almost all of them were later acquitted, however, for lack of enough evidence.

Tell us what you think of this report