Bhubaneswar: Former Chief Justice of Orissa High Court S Muralidhar will head the three-member Independent International Commission of Inquiry, a key United Nations panel tasked with investigating alleged human rights violations in Israel and the “Occupied Palestinian Territory”.
Justice Muralidhar succeeds Brazilian expert Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro.
“The appointment places an Indian jurist at the head of one of the UN’s most scrutinised investigative panels amid the ongoing Israel–Palestine conflict,” Bar and Bench reported, adding that the decision was announced on November 26–27.
As Chair, he will oversee investigations, direct fact-finding missions, evaluate evidence of violations, and shape the commission’s final reports to the UNHRC and General Assembly. The renewed three-member panel is expected to submit the next report to the Human Rights Council in 2026.
As the 32nd Chief Justice of Orissa High Court between 2021 and 2023, Justice Muralidhar had introduced paperless courts in Odisha, set up of e-filing web portal, 20 virtual courts at different places in the state, live-streaming of proceedings on high court’s official YouTube channel, among others.
Justice Muralidhar demitted office in August 2023, following which he returned to legal practice and was designated a senior advocate by the Supreme Court.
He has also previously served as counsel to the National Human Rights Commission.
However, he was overlooked for elevation to the Supreme Court despite being one of the senior-most High Court in the country.
Important Judgements
At the Delhi high court, Justice Muralidhar was part of the bench which had, in 2009, decriminalised homosexuality by striking down Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code. The SC overruled this judgment in 2013 but eventually struck down the provision in September 2018 in another case.
Hours before being transferred to Punjab & Haryana high court through a midnight order, Justice Muralidhar had held a hearing at his residence and ordered the police to rescue 22 people stuck in a hospital in north-east Delhi during communal riots.
While hearing the case related to CAA-linked violence, he had pulled up the Delhi Police for failing to register FIRs against politicians accused of making inflammatory speeches.
Before Prevention of Sexual Harassment at Workplace Act, 2013, Justice Muralidhar in a 2010 judgment introduced a practice wherein which prioritises the complainant’s perspective over a stereotyped idea of sexual harassment.
His other important judgment includes the rights of a woman to choose.
