Shanti Bhushan (born 11 November 1925) is an Indian politician and lawyer. He served as the Law Minister of India holding office at the Ministry of Law and Justice from 1977 to 1979 in the

Morarji Desai Ministry The premiership of Morarji Desai extended from 24 March 1977 to 15 July 1979. In the 1977 Indian general election Morarji Desai led the Janata Party to victory against the Congress party. Upon taking office, Morarji Desai became the first Indian ...

. He is a senior advocate of the

Supreme Court of India The Supreme Court of India ( IAST: ) is the supreme judicial authority of India and is the highest court of the Republic of India under the constitution. It is the most senior constitutional court, has the final decision in all legal matters ...

. He, along with his son

Prashant Bhushan Prashant or Prasant is a common male name in South Asia. It is derived from the word "shanth" which means patience, calm, quiet, or tranquil. People with the given name * Prashant Bose - Indian politician * Prashant Bhushan - Indian lawyer, ...

, was featured at 74th position in a list of the most powerful Indians published by ''

The Indian Express ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932. It is published in Mumbai by the Indian Express Group. In 1999, eight years after the group's founder Ramnath Goenka's death in 1991, the group was split betw ...

'' in 2009.

Political career

Bhushan was an active member of the

Congress (O) The Indian National Congress (Organisation) also known as Congress (O) or Syndicate/Old Congress was a political party in India formed when the Congress party split following the expulsion of Indira Gandhi. On 12 November 1969, the Prime Ministe ...

party and later the

Janata Party The Janata Party ( JP, lit. ''People's Party'') was a political party that was founded as an amalgam of Indian political parties opposed to the Emergency that was imposed between 1975 and 1977 by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of the Indian Nati ...

. He was a member of the

Rajya Sabha The Rajya Sabha, constitutionally the Council of States, is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of India. , it has a maximum membership of 245, of which 233 are elected by the legislatures of the states and union territories using si ...

from 14 July 1977 to 2 April 1980 and held office of Union Law Minister in the

Morarji Desai Morarji Ranchhodji Desai (29 February 1896 – 10 April 1995) was an Indian independence activist and politician who served as the 4th Prime Minister of India between 1977 to 1979 leading the government formed by the Janata Party. During his ...

ministry from 1977 to 1979. As the Law minister, he introduced

Forty-fourth Amendment of the Constitution of India The Forty-fourth Amendment of the Constitution of India, officially known as the Constitution (Forty-fourth Amendment) Act, 1978, was enacted by the Janata Party which had won the 1977general elections campaigning on a promise to "restore the ...

, which repealed many provisions of

Forty-second Amendment of the Constitution of India The 42nd amendment, officially known as The Constitution (Forty-second amendment) Act, 1976, was enacted during the Emergency (25 June 1975 – 21 March 1977) by the Indian National Congress government headed by Indira Gandhi. Most provisions o ...

passed by the

Indira Gandhi Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (; Given name, ''née'' Nehru; 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was an Indian politician and a central figure of the Indian National Congress. She was elected as third prime minister of India in 1966 ...

ministry.
He joined the

Bhartiya 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 Modi ...

in 1980. In 1986, he resigned from BJP after the party acted against his advice over an election petition. He became a founding member of the

Aam Aadmi Party The Aam Aadmi Party (; AAP) is a political party in India, as one of the national political parties. The AAP was founded in November 2012 by Arvind Kejriwal and his then-companions following the 2011 Indian anti-corruption movement, popular ...

after its formal launch on 26 November 2012.

Prominent cases and clients

* Bhushan represented

Raj Narain Raj Narain (23 November 1917 – 31 December 1986) was an Indian freedom fighter and politician. He won in a famous electoral malpractice case against the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, which led to her disqualification and imposition of ...

in a case against Indira Gandhi, the then

Prime Minister of India The prime minister of India (IAST: ) is the head of government of the Republic of India. Executive authority is vested in the prime minister and their chosen Council of Ministers, despite the president of India being the nominal head of the ...

. Justice Jagmohan Lal Sinha judged Indira Gandhi guilty and declared her election to the

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-past ...

void. The decision resulted in widespread political protests and ultimately resulted in the declaration of a

state of emergency A state of emergency is a situation in which a government is empowered to be able to put through policies that it would normally not be permitted to do, for the safety and protection of its citizens. A government can declare such a state du ...

in India. * In 1994, he appeared for two of the defendants accused of participating in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts case. * In 2002, he appeared as a counsel for

Arundhati Roy Suzanna Arundhati Roy (born 24 November 1961) is an Indian author best known for her novel ''The God of Small Things'' (1997), which won the Booker Prize for Fiction in 1997 and became the best-selling book by a non-expatriate Indian author. S ...

in a contempt case against her in the

. * Bhushan 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 Transparency International e.V. (TI) is a German registered association founded in 1993 by former employees of the World Bank. Based in Berlin, its nonprofit and non-governmental purpose is to take action to combat global corruption with civil ...

in the Provident Fund scandal case of

Ghaziabad Ghaziabad () is a city in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and a part of Delhi NCR. It is the administrative headquarters of Ghaziabad district and is the largest city in western Uttar Pradesh, with a population of 1,729,000. Ghaziabad Muni ...

, 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 was the counsel for the former Prime Minister of India

H. D. Deve Gowda Haradanahalli Doddegowda Deve Gowda (; born 18 May 1933 in) is an Indian politician from the state of Karnataka. He served as the 11th prime minister of India from 1 June 1996 to 21 April 1997. He was previously the 14th Chief Minister of Karn ...

in a petition related to allocation of land for

Bangalore - Mysore Infrastructure Corridor Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...

. * He has represented

Rajendra Singh Lodha Rajendra Singh Lodha (died 3 October 2008), popularly known as R. S. Lodha, was an Indian chartered accountant and the chairman of the Birla Corporation. Lodha became co-chairman of the Birla Corporation in 2001. In July 2004, Priyamvada Birl ...

regarding the assets of

Birla Corporation Birla Corporation Limited is an Indian-based flagship company of the M P Birla group of companies, founded by Shri Ghanshyam Das Birla in the late 1910s and carried on by Madhav Prasad Birla. In the 1890s, Birla Corporation was a jute manufact ...

. * He represented

V.S. Achuthanandan Velikkakathu Sankaran Achuthanandan (born 20 October 1923) is an Indian Communist politician who was the Chief Minister of Kerala from 2006 to 2011. At 82, he is the oldest person to have assumed the office. He served as the chairman of Adm ...

in the Supreme Court in the Idamalayar Dam corruption case against UDF leader R.Balakrishna Pillai and others. The bench awarded rigorous imprisonment for one year with fine of Rs. 10,000/- each to the accused persons.

Activism

In the late 1980s Shanti Bhushan was one of the founders of the

Centre for Public Interest Litigation The Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) is an Indian non-governmental organisation that conducts litigation on matters of public interest. The CPIL was established by late Justice V. M. Tarkunde, a former judge of the Supreme Court of Ind ...

, a

Non-governmental organization A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

that conducts litigation on matters of public interest. The first president was Justice

V. M. Tarkunde Vithal Mahadeo Tarkunde (3 July 1909 in Saswad – 22 March 2004 in Delhi), was a prominent Indian lawyer, civil rights activist, and humanist leader and has been referred to as the "Father of the Civil Liberties movement" in India and a former j ...

, who was also the founder of the

People's Union for Civil Liberties People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) is a human rights body formed in India in 1976 by Jayaprakash Narayan, as the People's Union for Civil Liberties and Democratic Rights (PUCLDR). Background Indian emergency Jayaprakash Narayan was a G ...

. Other founder members were senior advocates including

Fali Sam Nariman Fali Sam Nariman (born 10 January 1929) is an Indian jurist. He is the senior advocate to the Supreme Court of India since 1971 and was the President of the Bar Association of India from 1991 to 2010. Nariman is an internationally recognised jur ...

, Anil Divan,

Rajinder Sachar Rajindar Sachar (22 December 1923 – 20 April 2018) was an Indian lawyer and a former Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court. He was a member of United Nations Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and also served as a ...

and Colin Gonsalves. Shanti Bhushan, along with his son

has been involved in pressing for accountability in the Indian Judiciary by setting up Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Judicial Reform (CJAR). The campaign has been responsible for action against the judicial misconduct of Yogesh Kumar Sabharwal and for the declaration of assets by the judges. The campaign had also protested against the actions and appointments of Justice S. Ashok Kumar,

Madan Mohan Punchhi Madan Mohan Punchhi (10 October 1933 – 17 June 2015) was the 28th Chief Justice of India from 18 January 1998 until his retirement on 9 October 1998. He read law at the Faculty of Law, University of Delhi after which he began his legal caree ...

Soumitra Sen Soumitra Sen is a former judge of the Calcutta High Court. He was the first judge in independent India whose removal motion was passed in Rajya Sabha for misappropriation of funds. History He was born on 22 January 1958. He passed the High Scho ...

and Ashwini Kumar Mata. In December 2009 the

Committee on Judicial Accountability The Committee on Judicial Accountability and Judicial Reforms (CJAR) is a group of lawyers in India who work to improve the accountability of judges. In 1998 the committee prepared a charge sheet to impeach Justice Madan Mohan Punchhi, and obtain ...

stated that it considered that recommendations for judicial appointments should only be made after a public debate, including review by members of the bar of the affected high courts. This statement was made in relation to controversy about the appointments of justices C. K. Prasad and

P. D. Dinakaran Paul Daniel Dinakaran Premkumar (born 9 May 1950) was the Chief Justice of the Sikkim High Court. He resigned from the post following allegations of corruption and subsequent removal proceedings. Childhood and education P.D Dinakaran was bo ...

. The statement was signed by

Ram Jethmalani Ram Boolchand Jethmalani (14 September 1923 – 8 September 2019) was an Indian lawyer and politician. He served as India's Union minister of law and justice, as chairman of the Indian Bar Council, and as the president of the Supreme Court B ...

, Shanti Bhushan,

Anil B. Divan Anil B. Divan (born 15 May 1930 – 20 March 2017) was a senior advocate in India. He has been described as an eminent constitutional expert. Anil B. Divan was born on 15 May 1930 and died 20 March 2017. He was president of Law Asia from 1991 to ...

Kamini Jaiswal Kamini Jaiswal is an Indian lawyer practicing at Supreme Court of India. She along with Prashant Bhushan appeared for PIL filed by NGO Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) in Supreme Court on 2G case. Jaiswal is member of Committee o ...

and

. The father-son duo are currently facing charges for

contempt of court Contempt of court, often referred to simply as "contempt", is the crime of being disobedient to or disrespectful toward a court of law and its officers in the form of behavior that opposes or defies the authority, justice, and dignity of the cour ...

in Supreme Court of India for their statement about corruption in higher judiciary - specifically, about the corruption of former Chief Justices of the Supreme Court. During a hearing on the running case for contempt of court in November 2010, Shanti Bhushan went on to say, "The question of apology does not arise. I am prepared to go to jail." Shanti Bhushan was a prominent member of the core committee of India Against Corruption. The first

Lokpal A Lokpal ( sa, लोकपाल ''lokapāla'', "defender of people" or "People's Friend") is an anti-corruption authority or body of ombudsman who represents the public interest in the Republic of India. The current Chairperson of Lokpal is Pra ...

Bill was passed in the 4th Lok Sabha in 1969, but did not pass through the Rajya Sabha. Shanti Bhushan was a member of the Joint Drafting Committee for the Jan Lokpal Bill, constituted by the Government of India, representing the Civil Society.

Works

* ''Courting Destiny: A Memoir'' (2008)

References

External links