P. B. Sawant (30 June 1930 – 15 February 2021) was an Indian judge of the Supreme Court of India. After obtaining his law degree (LL.B.) from

Bombay University The University of Mumbai is a collegiate, state-owned, public research university in Mumbai. The University of Mumbai is one of the largest universities in the world. , the university had 711 affiliated colleges. Ratan Tata is the appointed ...

, Sawant started practicing as an advocate initially at the Bombay High Court and later at Supreme Court of India. In 1973, he was appointed Judge of the Bombay High Court; among his notable acts was an inquiry on the Air-India aircraft crash in June 1982. He was appointed justice in the Supreme Court in 1989. Since his retirement in 1995, he was active in public affairs. In 2002, he served with retired justice Hosbet Suresh on an Indian People's Tribunal headed by justice

V. R. Krishna Iyer Justice Vaidyanathapuram Rama Krishna Iyer (15 November 1915 – 4 December 2014) was an Indian judge who became a pioneer of judicial activism. He pioneered the legal-aid movement in the country. Before that, he was a state minister and poli ...

to investigate the

2002 Gujarat riots The 2002 Gujarat riots, also known as the 2002 Gujarat violence, was a three-day period of inter-communal violence in the western Indian state of Gujarat. The burning of a train in Godhra on 27 February 2002, which caused the deaths of 58 Hin ...

. Their report includes testimony of the then Gujarat

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Mod ...

(BJP) minister

Haren Pandya Haren Pandya was the Home Minister of Gujarat in India. He was allegedly murdered in 2003 in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, when he was sitting in his car (the place of his murder is contentious), after a morning walk in the Law Garden area in Ahmedabad. ...

(since murdered), who testified about a meeting convened by

Narendra Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament fro ...

on the evening of the

Godhra train burning The Godhra train burning occurred on the morning of 27 February 2002, in which 59 Hindu pilgrims and '' karsevaks'' returning from Ayodhya were killed in a fire inside the Sabarmati Express train near the Godhra railway station in the Indian ...

. At this meeting, officials were instructed not to obstruct the Hindu rage following the incident. The report also highlighted a second meeting, held in Lunawada village of

Panchmahal district Panchmahal, also known as Panch Mahals, is a district in the eastern portion of Gujarat State western India. ''Panch-mahal'' means "five tehsils/talukas" (5 sub-divisions), and refers to the five sub-divisions that were transferred by the Maharaj ...

, attended by state ministers Ashok Bhatt, and Prabhatsinh Chauhan, and other BJP and RSS leaders, where "detailed plans were made on the use of kerosene and petrol for arson and other methods of killing." Sawant chaired the P. B. Sawant commission constituted on 1 September 2003 to investigate corruption charges against 4 ministers of the Government of Maharashtra, namely, Nawab Malik, Padmasinh Patil, Suresh Jain and Vijaykumar Gavit. He submitted his report on 23 February 2005, which indicted Nawab Malik, Padmasinh Patil and Suresh Jain but exonerated Vijaykumar Gavit. It resulted in the resignation of two state cabinet ministers, Suresh Jain and Nawab Malik.

References

External links

Report of Justice P. B. Sawant Commission of Enquiry
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sawant, P. B. 1930 births 2021 deaths Justices of the Supreme Court of India University of Mumbai alumni Judges of the Bombay High Court 20th-century Indian judges 21st-century Indian judges Place of birth missing Place of death missing