Shanti Bhushan, veteran lawyer and former Union Law Minister, dies at 97

A crusader in courtrooms and outside, Shanti Bhushan took up several causes in his long public life. After a brief stint in the Congress (O), he took on Indira Gandhi on behalf of his client Raj Narain before the Allahabad High Court, challenging her election victory. He won the case that eventually led to Gandhi imposing Emergency. In 1977, when the Janata Party came to power, Bhushan was appointed Law Minister when he overturned a series of Constitutional Amendments that were made during Indira Gandhi’s time.

The 44th Constitution Amendment, which was a political promise to “restore the Constitution to the condition it was in before the Emergency”, was passed during his tenure.

In 1980, after the fall of the Janata Party, Bhushan joined the BJP but quit a few years later.

Returning to practice after his political stint, Bhushan fought a long list of cases, from constitutional to criminal law. In a Bar dominated by giants from Bombay and Madras, he is said to have set the trend for a high-fee charging senior advocate even as he took up several public causes.

“The POTA law was brought in to make confessions before police acceptable in terror cases. In perhaps the mother of all terror cases, the 2001 Parliament attack case, Shanti Bhushan ensured the Court did not accept two confessions of the accused. He told the Court he would morally convince the judges that it was the right thing to do and did exactly that,” senior advocate Nitya Ramakrishnan, who assisted him in the case, said.

A crusader for judicial accountability, Bhushan founded the Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Judicial Reform that took up several cases of alleged corruption in the judiciary. In 2012, he joined the Aam Aadmi Party.

Tributes poured in from both political and legal circles. In a Twitter post, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “Shri Shanti Bhushan Ji will be remembered for his contribution to the legal field and passion towards speaking for the underprivileged. Pained by his passing away. Condolences to his family. Om Shanti.”

Former Attorney General K K Venugopal said, “I came to know him very well much before the Emergency when he visited Madras and also appeared for M Karunanidhi, the then Chief Minister, before the Sarkaria Commission… I had appeared along with him. But finding that the Commission was rather hostile, we walked out of the case. When the Janata government came into existence, he invited me to Delhi as an Additional Solicitor General and thereafter when that government was swept out of power, both of us started appearing against each other. We developed considerable respect for each other and our friendship too lasted right through the years.”

Prashant Bhushan said, “All I can say is that this is the end of an era. He was a person who saw the evolution of the Constitution and the legal system from close quarters since Independence.”

Jurist and senior advocate Fali S Nariman said, “He was a very dear friend of mine. I am very sorry to hear the news. We had spoken some months ago on the telephone and he was not well at all.”