Former attorney general Ashok Desai passes away

NEW DELHI: Former attorney general Ashok Desai, who during dark days of emergency could make the fundamental right to expression shine by making it possible for Vijay Tendulkar's controversial play Shakharam to be staged, passed away at Mumbai. He was 78.
When he was being included as one of the top ten lawyers in SC ten years ago by the TOI, the newspaper for which he worked as a legal correspondent from 1963-1969, he had said that arguing the case of Tendulkar for getting a stay on the ban imposed on its stay was the 'turning point' of his career.
Since Sakharam Bhinder case, there was no stopping him, as he was involved in almost all cases involving important constitutional questions of law before the Supreme Court, for one party or the other, He is the most soft-spoken of the lot. Perhaps the thinnest too. But, he enjoyed the confidence of the court - not because he was an AG but because he had the ability to draw the Judges into believing that gross injustice would result if they don't entertain his client's plea.
The 78-year-old may have been reclusive when it comes to his personal life, but he used to open up when one asked him about the cases he had argued. "One of the great moments of my professional life was Antulay's case where we had to fight a litigation on behalf of Mrinal Gore and her brave colleagues to expose the bags of cement, already in short supply, being given against donations to the Indira Gandhi Pratisthan," he says. His work, aided by a vigilant press, had paid off. "Justice (Bakhtavar) Lentin held that the petitioners could prove the misbehaviour of the government almost mathematically".
Former attorney general Soli J Sorabjee, with whom Desai had worked as solicitor general in 1989-90, was emotive to learn about his former colleague's demise. He said, "Ashok was a very knowledgeable and we had worked together in many cases. He had profound knowledge of constitutional law and a man known for his charity and compassion."