Former Attorney General G.E. Vahanvati dies of heart attack at 65
Former Attorney General G.E. Vahanvati was described as "considerate and charming".
Sixty-five-year-old former Attorney General G.E. Vahanvati, who died of cardiac arrest on Tuesday evening in Mumbai, the city of his birth, was easily one of the best legal brains in the country.
Appointed as AG after the UPA government returned to power in June 2009, Vahanvati was faced with the arduous task of defending a regime constantly kept on the tenterhooks by an aggressive Supreme Court in several corruption cases, including 2G scam and coal blocks allocation scam.
Though the final outcome in both the scams went against his government, Vahanvati saved the day for the government on several occasions by acting as its trusted trouble shooter and shock absorber with his sharp legal acumen and as his colleague Solicitor General Mohan Parasaran says “his unique ability to read the mind of the judges”.
Unfailingly polite and courteous, he accomplished the task with elan whenever the government sought legal opinions on crucial issues including commuting death penalty to life sentence on ground of delay in handling mercy pleas, the Italian Marines case, the Aadhaar cards issue, and the tainted ministers’ case.
But he wasn’t a stranger to controversies. His role was put under severe scrutiny by PIL petitioners who sought action against those involved in the 2G and coal block scams.
His role in the 2G scam was probed by the CBI, which gave him a clean chit and later made him a witness in the case.
In late April 2013, a shadow was cast over Vahanvati’s integrity along with other high functionaries within the government for allegedly misrepresenting facts in a case relating to the coal allocation scam.
Lawyer Prashant Bhushan, who often breathed down Vahanvati’s neck in the corruption cases, said: “Even with the lawyers on the opposite side, he was very well-behaving, soft and very considerate. A charming personality, he never made any case look adversarial.”
He also served as Solicitor General between June 2004 and June 2009. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, under whom Vahanvati was the AG, condoled the death saying: “In his demise, India has lost an eminent legal luminary, a dedicated public servant and a very decent human being.”
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-2741177/Former-Attorney-General-G-E-Vahanvati-dies-heart-attack-65.html#ixzz3CCZKes5w
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
No comments:
Post a Comment