Justice Cyriac Joseph to act as interim NHRC head

President Pranab Mukherjee has authorized Justice Cyriac Joseph to act as the interim chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) until the appointment of a new chairperson.

Former NHRC chairperson K.G. Balakrishnan had completed his tenure on Monday. He was the sixth NHRC chairman and the longest serving one.

Justice Balakrishnan had joined as NHRC chairperson on June 7, 2010 after his retirement as the Chief Justice of India.

During his tenure, Justice Balakrishnan was instrumental in charting out several new initiatives towards promotion and protection of human rights in the country and laid a lot of emphasis on increasing the

outreach of the commission to build awareness about human rights.