Pioneer of judicial activism Bhagwati passes away

Former chief justice of India P N Bhagwati, considered a pioneer of judicial activism in the country for introducing the concept of PILs, died here on Thursday after brief illness, family sources said.

Bhagwati, 95, is survived by wife Prabhavati Bhagwati and three daughters.

The funeral will be held on June 17, they said.

The 17th Chief Justice of India, Bhagwati remained on the highest judicial post between July 1985 and December 1986.

He was a former chief justice of the Gujarat High Court and was appointed a judge of the Supreme Court in July 1973.

As a Supreme Court judge, Bhagwati introduced the concepts of public interest litigation (PIL) and absolute liability to the Indian judicial system.

As a champion of PILs, he had ruled there was no need for a person to have any locus standi (the right or capacity to bring an action or to appear in a court) to knock the doors of a court on the issue of fundamental rights.

He was also instrumental in furthering the cause of prisoners when he ruled that they, too, enjoyed fundamental rights. One of the important judgements pronounced by him was in the Maneka Gandhi passport impounding case in 1978 in which he elaborated the concept of right to life, and ruled that a person’s movement cannot be restricted. He had ruled that a person had full right to hold a passport.