Acclaimed lawyer and former Union minister Shanti Bhushan passed away at his home in Delhi at 7PM on 30 January. He was 97.
Bhushan served as the law minister from 1977 to 1979 in the Morarji Desai cabinet.
Bhushan represented Raj Narain in a case against Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India. Justice Jagmohan Lal Sinha judged Indira Gandhi guilty and declared her election to the Lok Sabha void. The decision resulted in widespread political protests and ultimately resulted in the declaration of a state of emergency in India.
Bhushan was an active member of the Congress (O) party and later the Janata Party. He was a member of the Rajya Sabha from 14 July 1977 to 2 April 1980.
As the Law minister, he introduced Forty-fourth Amendment of the Constitution of India, which repealed many provisions of Forty-second Amendment of the Constitution of India passed by the Indira Gandhi ministry.
He joined the Bhartiya Janata Party in 1980. In 1986, Bhushan resigned from BJP after the party acted against his advice over an election petition. He became a founding member of the Aam Aadmi Party after its formal launch on 26 November 2012.
In 1994, he appeared for two of the defendants accused of participating in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts case. In 2002, Bhushan appeared as a counsel for Arundhati Roy in a contempt case against her in the Supreme Court of India.
Bhushan also represented Shaukat Hussain in 2008 for an appeal against his 10-year conviction for his role in the 2001 Indian Parliament attack.
Bhushan appeared as senior counsel for Transparency International in the Provident Fund scandal case of Ghaziabad, which allegedly involved several judges of the Indian judiciary. The bench abandoned the hearing after deeming his remarks as contemptuous and termed his behavior as that of a street urchin.
Shanti Bhushan, along with his son Prashant Bhushan has been involved in pressing for accountability in the Indian Judiciary by setting up Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Judicial Reform (CJAR).
