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

MUMBAI: Justice Hosbet Suresh, a former judge of the Bombay high court and a human rights advocate since his retirement in 1991, died in the city late on Thursday. He would have turned 91 next month.
Justice Suresh cut a diminutive figure physically but was a giant of human rights advocacy, said lawyers.
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 human rights inquiry panels, a member of the Lawyers' Collective after retirement, and the president of the Indian Association of People's Lawyers.
A Bombay high court judge from 1986 till July 1991, he was a judge of the city civil and sessions court from November 1968 till he resigned in June 1980 and resumed practice.
As an activist, his causes ranged from street-dweller rights to the BEST bus service.
He was part of inquiries that looked at the public food distribution system, human rights violations in the Kashmir Valley, the adverse impact of prawn farming on the environment and adivasi shootings in Devas, MP. He was on an international tribunal in Myanmar that scrutinised food scarcity. He investigated the Kaveri riots in 1991 in Bengaluru and the post-Babri riots of 1992-93.
Mihir Desai, senior advocate and a rights activist who worked with Justice Suresh on many fact-finding and peoples' tribunals, called him an excellent judge and human being. "He was a tireless champion of human rights of the downtrodden," he said.
Women's activist and lawyer Flavia Agnes said few know that he was a feminist at heart and passed a landmark order as a high court judge to ensure maintenance to children till they completed their education. He was also a trustee of women's NGO Majlis.