Senior Advocate And Former Attorney General For India Ashok Desai Passes Away

Former Attorney General for India, Senior Advocate Ashok Desai passed away at 5.30 this morning.

Desai started practice in Bombay High Court in 1956 .He was designated as a Senior Advocate on 8 August 1977.  

He held office as the Attorney General for India from 9 July 1996 to 6 May 1998 . He was awarded the Padma Bhushan award and the Law Luminary Award in 2001.

He has appeared in notable cases such as Navtej Singh Johar (decriminalization of Section 377), Nandini Sundar (Salwa Judum case), Vineet Narain (on powers of CBI and CVC), Narmada dam case, Narasimha Rao case (on parliamentary privileges) etc. 

 He was also the Legal Correspondent for Times of India from 1963 to 1969. Mr. Desai was Professor of Law in Law College, Bombay from 1964 and Lecturer in Law in Bombay College of Journalism from 1967-1972.

He has written and published several books and articles.

Along with Justice Dr S Muralidhar, he has co-authored the book "Public interest Litigation: Potential and Problems".

"The Bombay High Court-on the High Court as a Constitutional Court",  "The Law Shall Prevail: A Relook at the Indian Legal System",  "Judicial Overreach: A critique", "1975-1977 Emergency.Some legal recollections", are some of his published works.

Senior Advocate Sanjay Hegde remembered him as a "great lawyer, a better man and someone who commanded universal respect".

While conveying his thoughts and prayers for the family of Desai, Hegde said "the legal community lost a gem".