Milon Kumar Banerji,who held the office of Attorney General of India twice between 1992-96 and 2004-09,died on Tuesday at the Apollo Hospital,his family said in a statement. He was 80. Banerji had suffered brain haemorrhage on December 14 last year and was hospitalised,said his secretary R S Tiwari. His last rites will be performed at the Lodhi Road electric crematorium Wednesday evening,the family said. Banerji is survived by two sons Debal Banerji is a senior lawyer practising in the Calcutta High Court and Supreme Court and younger son Gourav Banerji is an Additional Solicitor General. He was first appointed Attorney General in the P V Narasimha Rao Government from 1992 to 1996 and then in the UPA-I government of Manmohan Singh. He served as Solicitor General from 1986 to 1989 and as Additional Solicitor General from 1979 to 1986. Banerji,during his 50-year career,had appeared in the Supreme Court and various High Courts and was associated with a number of important cases. During the Narasimha Rao government,the day he took over as the AG on November 24,1992,he had appeared in the Ram Janambhoomi case and told the Supreme Court that the situation had reached a boiling point and any inaction would make it irreversible. The judgment in the case,upholding the validity of the Acquisition of Certain Areas in Ayodhya Act,1993,was another landmark in his career. He had argued cases involving issues of Election Commissions power and the citizenship of Congress president Sonia Gandhi. The national awards,like the Bharat Ratna and the Padma awards,were revived by the Supreme Court after a long break,accepting Banerjees arguments and suggestions. More than a decade after the apex courts judgement,he was awarded with Padma Vibhushan in 2005. Banerji obtained his LLB degree in 1950 from Allahabad University and completed his LLM from Cambridge University in 1953 before enrolling as an advocate of the Allahabad High Court in 1955. He also practised in the Calcutta High Court. He became a designated senior advocate in May 1972. He was a member of Permanent Court of Arbitration and recently appointed as a member of the Permanent Court. He was also elected to the position of Honorary Bencher of the Society of Lincolns Inn,London,which also included Nelson Mandela and Tony Blair among its Benchers.
