Human rights lawyer, Girish Patel, dies at 85

“He willed for his body to be donated, and no condolence meetings to be organised”, said Anand Yagnik, a leading lawyer whom Patel had mentored.

A native of Nadiad, Patel was the son of a sanitary inspector. He did his LLM from Harvard University in the United States after which he practised in the International Court of Justice before returning to India to teach at the Law College. He was selected as member of the Gujarat State Law Commission in 1972. After serving the commission for three years, he started practising law in the Gujarat High Court from 1975. He was one of the designated senior counsels of the HC. He was always sympathetic towards the downtrodden sections and introduction of Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in judiciary in 1980 provided him the biggest opportunity to work for them.

Patel had moved more than 200 PILs in the HC on issues ranging from education, livelihood, health to atrocities against Dalits, tribals, women and children.

Meenakshi Joshi, member of the The Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI), Gujarat, said in a statement, “The sad demise of Girishbhai Patel is the rudest shock. He was a bold voice for democracy and deprived, women’s cause, minorities’ rights, riot victims, Dalit rights, and working class”.