He was one of the chief organisers of the 2017 ‘Elgaar Parishad’. Former Supreme Court judge P.B. Sawant passed away at his Pune residence after a brief illness on February 15, aged 90.
According to sources, the retired judge, who had been active in public affairs since his retirement from the Supreme Court in 1995, had been ailing for a month. His last rites will be performed on February 16, said sources close to him.
Justice Sawant was in the news in recent years for being one of the chief organisers, along with retired Bombay High Court judge B.G. Kolse-Patil, of the original and controversial ‘Elgaar Parishad’ held in December 2017.
Wasim Beg &
Muneeb Rashid Malik
“Access to
justice is and has been recognised as a part and parcel of right to life in
India and in all civilised societies around the globe. The right is so basic
and inalienable that no system of governance can possibly ignore its
significance, leave alone afford to deny the same to its citizens. The Magna
Carta, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights, 1966, the ancient Roman jurisprudential maxim ubi
jus ibiremedium, the development of fundamental principles of common law by
judicial pronouncements of the courts over centuries past have all contributed