New Delhi, Feb 1 (LAB), Former Law Minister and Senior Advocate Shanti Bhushan passed away on Tuesday January 31, after brief illness.
Shanti Bhushan served as a law minister in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Morarji Desai from 1977 to 1979. He represented politician Raj Narain in the historic case that led to the annulment of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s election in 1975.
In the Raj Narain vs Indira Nehru Gandhi case, the Allahabad High Court Judge Justice Jagmohan Lal Sinha, in June 1975 found Indira Gandhi guilty and declared her election to the Lok Sabha as void.
The Judge disqualified Indira Gandhi for a period of six years from contesting elections. Freedom fighter and politician Raj Narain, who had unsuccessfully contested the 1971 Lok Sabha elections from Raebareli in Uttar Pradesh against Gandhi, had in his plea accused her of corrupt electoral practices.
Gandhi had moved the Supreme Court against the high court verdict. It triggered a series of events culminating into the imposition of Emergency on June 25, 1975.
As Law Minister, Shanti Bhushan introduced the Forty-fourth Amendment of the Constitution of India, which repealed many provisions of Forty-second Amendment of the Constitution passed by the Cabinet of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
In his political career, he was a member of the Congress (O) and later of the Janata Party. He served as a Rajya Sabha member too. He also joined the Bhartiya Janata Party in 1980. In 1986, he resigned from BJP after the saffron party acted against his advice over an election petition.
Late Shanti Bhushan became a founding member of the Aam Aadmi Party after its formal launch on November 26, 2012.
Bhushan had founded the NGO named Centre for Public interest litigation in 1980.
His son Prashant Bhushan said that this was the end of an era. /LAB/SNG