Senior Advocate Anil Divan no more

Veteran Senior Advocate Anil Divan passed away today. He was 86 years old..Over the years, Divan had established himself as one of the nation’s foremost jurists, having appeared in a number of landmark cases in the Supreme Court of India..A believer in the independence of the judiciary, Divan had appeared in the challenge to the NJAC Act. In fact, during a conference, he was quoted as saying,.“India is like a mini-Europe. There is great diversity. And what keeps this diversity together is our judiciary. Is it then not important that it be kept independent and separate from the executive?”.He had appeared in the Oleum gas leak case, as well as in the Bhopal Gas Tragedy case in the apex court. He was also the Karnataka government’s highest paid counsel in the Cauvery disputes issue, having appeared from 1992 to 2016..Apart from these cases, he also appeared in the challenge to the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PoTA) and in the Rupa Ashok Hurra case, which laid down the law related to curative petitions. More recently, he had replaced Fali Nariman as Amicus Curiae in the BCCI case in the Supreme Court..Divan was also President of the Bar Association of India and one of the founders of Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL)..As the tributes in honour of the respected lawyer flow in, his funeral will be held today at 4:30 pm at Lodhi crematorium in Delhi..Image courtesy: Vidhi