Prashant Bhushan is a leading lawyer of the country. He is practicing law and an active social activist. He was born in the year 1956 in a Lawyers family in Delhi. His father Mr. Shanti Bhushan was the former Law Minister of India. Prashant’s wife was a lawyer and they have 3 sons. The eldest son is preparing to join Oxford University.
Prashant studied mechanical engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras but left after a semester. He subsequently studied economics and philosophy at Princeton University but left and returned to India where he received a law degree from Allahabad University.
He is a well known social activist. In his career of 15 years he has worked on around 500 Public Interest Litigations. His first important case was the ‘Doon valley case’ where the illegal mining was creating an environment hazard. He then filed a PIL in the Bhopal gas tragedy and the Narmada case also. He also investigated the ‘bofors case’. He was the Delhi president of the people’s Union for Civil Liberties, a human rights organization. He is a strong supporter of clean Judiciary. He along with Arvind Kejriwal, is involved in the Anna Hazare-led anti corruption movement in India.
He was a member of the joint committee constituted in April 2011 by India to draft the Lokpal Bill. He along with other members of Team Anna clashed with government ministers on the bill. He described the Lokpal Bill introduced in parliament as a corruption bill because it contained harsh punishment for whistleblowers and protected the corrupt. Indian parliament issued him a notice of breach of privilege for his remarks against the Parliament and parliamentarians which he denied. He speaks in a frank and clear manner on matters of state and justice that have been made acutely apparent in this struggle for recognition and justice.
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Prashant has written many books on judiciary and the cases he fought. Some of them are listed below.
a. Appointment of Thomas as CVC Chief.
b. The Doon valley case.
c. Bhopal tragedy case.
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d. Narmada case.
e. Important cases litigation.
f. 2G scam by A. Raja and team.
On 12th October 2011, Bhushan was attacked and beaten up by Bhagat Singh Kranti Sena and Shri Ram Sena activists for his view that the Indian army should be withdrawn from Jammu and Kashmir, and if the Kashmiri people did not want to live in India, they should be permitted to vote for separation. The Shiv Sena called for Bhushan to be tried for his statements about Kashmir. However, Prashant Bhushan stood by his comments and justified his statement.