Former Law Minister & Noted Lawyer Shanti Bhushan Passes Away

New Delhi: Senior Advocate and former Union Law Minister Shanti Bhushan passed away at his home in Delhi at pm today. He was 97.

While he led many famous cases, Bhushan is known for representing Raj Narain in the legendary case in Allahabad High Court which resulted in unseating of Indira Gandhi as the Prime Minister in 1974.

The court found Indira Gandhi guilty and declared her electoral victory to the Lok Sabha void which subsequently triggered massive political outrage. Later the row led to the declaration of a state of emergency in India.

A vocal activist against corruption and a champion of civil liberties, Shanti Bhushan served as the Law Minister of India from 1977 to 1979 in the Morarji Desai Ministry. In 1980, he founded the famous NGO ‘Centre for Public Interest Litigation’, which has filed several important PILs in the Supreme Court. In 2018, he had filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking changes in the ‘master of roster’ system.

Bhushan was one of the top legal experts and activists who played a key role in several landmark reforms in the laws. He was also a politician who started his career with Congress (O) party and later the Janata Party. He was a member of the Rajya Sabha from 1977 to 1980.

He was known for introducing the forty-fourth Amendment of the Constitution of India which revoked many provisions of law made by the Indira Gandhi government.

Bhushan joined the Bhartiya Janata Party in 1980 and later in 1986, he resigned from the saffron party. He was one of the founding members of the Aam Aadmi Party. His son Advocate Prashant Bhushan is also a famous lawyer-activist.