Former Attorney General and Senior Advocate of Supreme Court of India Ashok Desai passes away.
When a great man dies, for years the light he leaves behind him, lies on the paths of men. – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
He held office as the Attorney General for India from 9th July 1996 to 6th May 1998. He was the Solicitor General of India from 18th December, 1989 to 2nd December, 1990.
As a Senior Advocate he appeared in a large number of cases involving issues of Constitutional Law and Competition Law.
Desai was the Chairman of the Committee on Administrative Law of International Bar Association in 1986-88 and Consultant to the Commonwealth Workshop on Administrative Law at Lusaka, Zambia in 1990. In 1997, He presented India’s Report to the United Nations Committee on Human Rights in Geneva and in 1998, he led the Indian delegation to the United Nations Preparatory Committee on Money Laundering Bill in Vienna.
On his completion of 50 years in Bar, Senior Advocate Fali Nariman said that,
“Mr Desai’s entire legal career shows that it is not enough merely to know your law but important to know many things outside the law as well.”
Some significant cases include – Sakharam Binder (Pandurang Sawalaram Dhurat v. C.P. Godse; 1972 SCC OnLine Bom 154 ) , Piloo Modi, Antulay , Ramanna Shetty, Narasimha Rao about Parliamentary privilege, Vineet Narain, and the list is goes on.
Book by Ashok Desai – Supreme but not Infallible .
Part of his golden words on Law Day, 1996:
Speech Law Day 1996 – On Monday, the 26th November, 1996 in the Supreme Court Premises
by Ashok H. Desai, Attorney General of India
