UN names Indian jurist to lead Israel-Palestine rights inquiry

NEW DELHI, India (MNTV) — The United Nations has appointed eminent Indian jurist Justice S. Muralidhar as Chair of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, placing a longtime defender of civil liberties and judicial independence at the center of one of the world’s most consequential human-rights investigations.

The announcement was made by Human Rights Council President Ambassador Jürg Lauber. Justice Muralidhar succeeds Brazilian expert Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro and will lead the three-member panel alongside Florence Mumba of Zambia and Chris Sidoti of Australia, who has been reappointed.

The Commission is tasked with examining violations of international humanitarian law, identifying those responsible, and making recommendations to ensure accountability. It reports annually to both the UN General Assembly and the Human Rights Council.

The body was created in 2021 to investigate systemic abuses in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and in Israel. In 2024, the Council expanded its mandate, directing the Commission to examine settler violence and arms transfers, including those used in Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza.

A report issued in September 2025 concluded that Israel had committed genocide against Palestinians — findings that place enormous global scrutiny on the Commission’s work and its new chair.

Judicial career defined by constitutional courage

Widely respected within India’s legal community, Justice Muralidhar served nearly two decades in the Supreme Court of India as counsel, including as lawyer to the National Human Rights Commission and as amicus curiae in landmark public-interest cases. Appointed to the Delhi High Court in 2006 and later Chief Justice of the Orissa High Court in 2021, he is known for rulings that foregrounded human rights, accountability, and the rule of law.

Among his most notable judgments are:

• Led the conviction of Indian politician Sajjan Kumar for orchestrating violence during the 1984 anti-Sikh pogrom, one of India’s deadliest episodes of state-enabled communal killings, securing justice decades after systematic impunity.

• Sentenced 16 members of the Uttar Pradesh police force to life imprisonment for the Hashimpura massacre, where security forces abducted and executed 38 unarmed Muslim men, marking one of the rare instances of police officers being held accountable for targeted communal killings in India.

• Granted bail to rights defender Gautam Navlakha in the internationally scrutinized Elgar Parishad case, challenging the government’s use of anti-terror laws to imprison dissenting voices and criminalize activism.

• Conducted an emergency midnight hearing during the 2020 anti-Muslim violence in Delhi, ordering police to immediately provide medical access and safe passage to injured victims after authorities initially refused assistance — a moment widely viewed as judicial intervention in a humanitarian crisis.

• Publicly rebuked Delhi Police for failing to act against ruling-party leaders who delivered hate speeches during the Citizenship Amendment Act protests, warning that the court would “not allow another 1984” — a reference to anti-Sikh pogrom.

• He also publicly criticized the judicial handling of the Babri Masjid demolition and the Supreme Court’s 2019 verdict awarding the mosque site to Hindu groups.

Justice Muralidhar’s transfer from the Delhi High Court in 2020, hours after he ordered police accountability in the anti-Muslim riots case, triggered widespread alarm about political interference in India’s judiciary — reinforcing his reputation as a rare judge willing to confront state power.

Scholarship and education

Born on 8 August 1961, he studied Chemistry at Vivekananda College, Chennai, before earning a law degree from the University of Madras, where he received the L.C. Miller Medals and the Carmichael and Innes Prize.

He topped the Advocate-on-Record examination of the Supreme Court in 1990, completed an LL.M in Constitutional and Administrative Law from Nagpur University in 1991, and earned a PhD from the University of Delhi in 2003 for research on legal aid and criminal justice.

He is the author of Law, Poverty and Legal Aid: Access to Criminal Justice (2004) and editor of [In]Complete Justice: 75 Years of the Supreme Court.

He also served as a member of the Law Commission of India from 2002 to 2006, and after retiring in 2023, returned to practice and was designated Senior Advocate in October 2023.

Global significance

Human-rights experts say his appointment sends a strong message at a time when judicial independence in India faces mounting pressure and the global community demands accountability for Israeli war crimes.

Analysts argue that placing a jurist known for standing up to powerful governments at the helm of the inquiry signals renewed seriousness about international justice mechanisms.

Justice Muralidhar’s leadership at the Commission will be closely watched as the world confronts the consequences of genocide, illegal occupation, and denial of Palestinian nationhood.