Ex-Bombay HC judge and human rights activist, Hosbet Suresh, passes away

MUMBAI: Justice Hosbet Suresh, former judge of Bombay high court and a tireless human rights advocate since his retirement in 1991, passed away late Thursday night, in the city. He would have turned 91 years old next month.
Justice Suresh, his diminutive size notwithstanding was a giant when it came to human rights advocacy and fighting against HR abuse, said lawyers in Mumbai and Delhi.Always ready with a smile, he was to many, a familiar and comforting bespectacled figure in his untucked shirt or kurta and trousers. He was on numerous panels to enquire and fact find instances of human rights violations. He was a long time member of Lawyers’ Collective post retirement and also the president of Indian Association of People’s Lawyers (IAPL).
Considered among HR activists, as the leading personality on human rights activist in India.
A judge of the Bombay HC since 1986 till his retirement in July 1991, he was earlier also judge of then Bombay city civil and sessions court from November 1968 till he resigned in June 1980 and resumed practice.
After retiring from the judiciary, his human rights activism took off and survived till his very end, spanning almost three decades taking up the cause of pavement dwellers’ rights and those in the valley.
The IAPL in 2018 had condemned a “brazen attack" via a “threat” by Pune police-- investigating the Elgar Parishad case against alleged Maosists--to arrest him as president of IAPL, and the “alarming portrayal by the police of IAPL as a frontal organization for CPI (Maoist)".
Mihir Desai, senior advocate in Mumbai and an ardent human rights activist himself who worked with him on many fact findings and peoples’ tribunals, told TOI on Friday that Justice Suresh was an “excellent judge and human being. He was a tireless champion of human rights of the downtrodden".
Among the many commissions of inquiry he was on, he investigated the Kaveri riots in 1991 in Bengaluru, the Post Babri riots of 1992-93 and the findings were published in a report called the “the people’s verdict’.
The IAPL said that in August 1995, Justice Suresh (retired) came out with a report to document the use of ‘brutal force’ to evict pavement dwellers and slum dwellers.
In 2000, he teamed up with former Supreme Court judge, Justice VR Krishna Iyer, himself a crusader for social justice, HR and civil liberties, to hold a two-day hearing into slum clearances, focusing on legal and human impact in clearing of over 60,000 people, said an IAPL release in 2018.
He along with other former judges as members of Indian People’s Tribunal launched a ‘fact finding effort’ following the 2002 Godhra train attack and prepared a report called, “Crime Against Humanity’.
Anand Grover of Lawyers Collective said, “LC mourns the passing of Justice Suresh. He was dear friend, comrade and a guide to us as a trustee and otherwise.” He said, “He will be remembered as a strong advocate and defender for HR.”
Another activist lawyer Yug Chaudhary mourning his loss said, “He was an exceptional human being, compassionate, large-hearted, and brave. He would be willing to go to the ends of the earth to redress injustice and hardship. The world is a poorer place without him in it.
Women’s activist and lawyer Flavia Agnes said few know that he was a feminist at heart too and passed a landmark orders as a HC judge to ensure maintenance to children till their education was complete. He was also a trustee of Majlis, an NGO for women started by Agnes.
And he was part of inquiries that looked at public food distribution system, human rights violations in the Kashmir Valley as well as the adverse impact of prawn farming on environment, Adivasi deaths by shooting in Devas, Madhya Pradesh, and even in Myanmar on an international tribunal that scrutinised food scarcity.