Odisha: With Junior As Chairperson, Justice Raghubir Dash Resigns From OHRC

Bhubaneswar: Justice (retired) Raghubir Dash has resigned as a member of Odisha Human Rights Commission (OHRC). The development came two days after the appointment of Justice (retired) Satrughana Pujahari as chairman of the rights panel.

In his resignation letter addressed to Governor Ganeshi Lal, Justice Raghubir Dash wrote, “The newly appointed chairperson of OHRC is the right person with the ability to raise the reputation of the institution to the next level by his tireless efforts to protect the interests of the victims of human rights violations.”

“However, my conscience, as well as a sense of self-respect, dissuades me from continuing to hold the office of a member of the OHRC under the chairperson-designate who, as a judge of the High Court of Orissa, was junior to me,” he added.

Justice Dash served as judge of the Orissa High Court from January 2013 to February 2016. Justice Pujahari took oath as a judge of the Orissa High Court in October 2014. He was then transferred to Madras High Court and joined Orissa High Court as a judge again in November 2018.

In 2019, Justice Dash was appointed as the acting chairperson of OHRC. He held the office till the appointment of a regular chairperson. He was also the chairman of the commission of inquiry probing the missing Ratna Bhandar keys of Jagannath Temple in Puri.

Along with former Judge of Orissa High Court Justice Satrughana Pujahari, the government reappointed advocate Asim Amitabh Dash as its member on February 10.