Former Law Minister Shanti Bhushan passes away at 97; PM Modi condoles

New Delhi, Jan 31: Former Law Minister and eminent jurist Shanti Bhushan passed away on Tuesday at the age of 97. He breathed his last around 7 pm as per the reports.

He was not well for some time and passed away at his home, a source informed news agency PTI.

Bhushan was active in the legal profession till recently and had argued on a PIL in the Supreme Court seeking a court-monitored probe into the Rafale fighter jets deal.

Bhusham served as the Law Minister between 1977 and 1979 in the Morarji Desai government. An active member of Congress had quit the grand old party to join Janata Party.

In the historic Raj Narain vs Indira Nehru Gandhi case, the Allahabad High Court in its verdict in June 1975 had disqualified Gandhi for a period of six years from contesting elections.

The plea was filed by freedom fighter and politician Raj Narain, who had unsuccessfully contested the 1971 Lok Sabha elections from Raebareli in Uttar Pradesh against her, accusing her of corrupt electoral practices.

Gandhi had moved the Supreme Court against the high court verdict. It triggered a series of events culminating into the imposition of Emergency on June 25, 1975. He was credited for introducing the Forty-fourth Amendment of the Constitution of India, thereby repealing many provisions of the Forty-second Amendment passed by the Indira Gandhi ministry.

He was also co-founder of Aam Aadmi Party and took part in anti-corruption protest led by Anna Hazare in 2012. Following differences, he quit the party. He had then criticised Arvind Kejriwal over his organisational skills.

It has to be noted that his son Prashant Bhushan was part of AAP and thrown out of the party. Shanti Bhushan had also filed a plea in the apex court challenging the roster practice of allocation of cases by the Chief Justice of India. In its verdict on his plea, the top court had in July 2018 maintained that the Chief Justice of India is "the master of the roster" and has the prerogative and authority to allocate cases to different benches of the apex court.

In November 2010, Shanti Bhushan had stuck to his sensational allegation that there was corruption in the judiciary and had refused to apologise to the Supreme Court asserting he was willing to be jailed for contempt. He had made the remarks when the apex court had asked whether he and his son Prashant were willing to tender an apology to avoid being hauled up for contempt, PTI reported.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expressed condolences over the death of Shanti Bhushan.

"He will be remembered for his contribution to the legal field and passion towards speaking for the underprivileged. Pained by his passing away," the PM tweeted.

Law Minister Kiren Rijiju tweeted, "Deeply pained to hear the news that former Union Law and Justice Minister Shanti Bhushan ji is no more. My deepest condolences to the family members on his passing away. My prayers for the departed soul. Om Shanti 🙏. [sic]"

Prominent Cases

He had represented Raj Narain in a case against Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India and eventually Justice Jagmohan Lal Sinha had found Gandhi guilty by declaring her election to Lok Sabha void.

He had also appeared for two defendants accused of participating in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts case. Bhushan had also defended Arundhati Roy in a contempt case against her in the Supreme Court of India.

He had also represented former Prime Minister Deve Gowda in a petition related to allocation of land for Bangalore - Mysore Infrastructure Corridor.

With inputs from PTI