SHIMLA: After the first schedule tribe advocate from Himachal to be elevated as a Delhi High Court judge, Justice Inder Singh Mehta(retd) on Wednesday was appointed as the President of Himachal Pradesh State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (HPSCDRC) for four year or till the age of 65. 

The Justice (retd) Mehta is the first judge from tribal area of Himachal Pradesh, who was appointed President of the state commission. People of tribal areas have hailed his appointment. So far, neither Himachal nor Delhi has seen any person from tribal community who became President of the state commission.   

The Justice Mehta was elevated as Delhi High Court Judge on 15 December 2014 and he got superannuation on April 5, 2020. He was enrolled as an advocate with the Bar Council of Delhi in 1982.

Mehta was born on 6th April, 1958 in remote tribal village of Lippa, Tehsil Moorang in district Kinnaur, Himachal Pradesh in a Himalayan Buddhist family. 

He was selected in Delhi Higher Judicial Services in 1995. He was posted in several District Courts of Delhi.  He was posted as the first District Judge of South-West District Court, Dwarka, Delhi in 2008. Thereafter, he was posted as first District & Sessions Judge of New Delhi District at Patiala House Courts, New Delhi till December  14, 2014.

He was nominated to participate in a seminar organised by the Global counter-terrorism forum in 2014 at Hague, Netherlands on the role of judiciary in handling counter-terrorism and national security cases.  

He had entered legal profession when advocates from tribal community hardly accounted for 1 per cent of the legal profession in the state.