Tribute | P B Sawant, the rare SC judge with a human touch

pb-sawant
Former Supreme Court Judge PB Sawant; Design: Onmanorama

Former Supreme Court judge P B Sawant, who passed away in Pune after a brief illness at the ripe age of 91 on February 15, was a rare soul from the nation’s judiciary who took an active interest and participated in public affairs, which showed his commitment to the downtrodden.

He remained in the news till a few months ago with journalists across the country seeking his views on issues as varied as judicial, political, social and cultural. That he was one of the chief organisers, along with his long-time friend and former Bombay High Court judge BG Kolse-Patil, of the first ‘Elgaar Parishad’ held at the historic Shaniwar Wada in Pune on December 31, 2017, on the eve of the violence at the Bhima-Koregaon bicentenary celebrations, further intensified the media focus on him.

But the man remained true to his character and profession till the last breath. Sawant was known to be a man with a serious disposition who chose his words very carefully. But he was accessible and humane – always speaking slowly in his mild voice.

The human face of Justice Sawant was highlighted by Arun Khore, a senior editor from Pune who knew him for decades. “I remember meeting him for the first time in the late eighties, soon after his appointment as a judge of the Supreme Court,” Khore recalled.

Interestingly, the meeting did not happen in the hallowed corridors of justice in Delhi or Mumbai, but at a function organized by the Mahatma Phule Samata Parishad in the crowded, labyrinthine lanes of downtown Pune, where the newly appointed Supreme Court judge was invited by Dr Baba Adhav, a veteran labour rights activist leading the struggles for the rights of India’s toiling masses for the past seven decades.

“Justice Sawant had a serious but easy demeanour and he spoke in a mild, measured tone. But what impressed me was the apex court judge’s concern for the problems facing the country’s vast millions engaged in backbreaking manual labour,” Khore said.

Sawant was accompanied by his wife and they were both keen on knowing all about the welfare initiatives of Hamal Panchayat, the organization run by Dr Adhav. At one point, the VIP couple expressed their desire to visit ‘Kashtachi Bhakar’(which literally means hard-earned bread in Marathi), a community kitchen aiming to provide basic nutritious food to the less privileged sections of society on a no-profit-no-loss principle.

The venture, launched in 1974, had thrived feeding thousands of people every day in Pune. Justice Sawant and his wife sat down listening to the simple men and women who were preparing the humble meal of vegetables, roti, rice and curry, while also offering cheaper, lighter options like roti-vegetable or the traditional ‘jhunka-bhakar’.

“The couple, appreciating the basic idea of providing fresh, healthy and affordable food to the poor people of the city, even partook of the humble Maharashtrian menu along with journalists and activists present at the central kitchen in Bhavani Peth,” Khore added.

Sawant’s long time colleague, friend and fellow activist, retired Judge Kolse-Patil, who could not hold back his emotions, said the late Supreme Court judge was truly a towering personality whose dedication to social justice was legendary.

Born on June 30, 1930, P B (Parshuram Babarao) Sawant started his career as a lecturer in law at Mumbai in the mid-1960s while also establishing himself as a successful lawyer. He was appointed to the Bombay high court in 1973 and was elevated to Supreme Court in 1989.

After six eventful years at the apex court, he retired in 1995 but remained active in public life for the past 25 years.

During his years in the legal profession, Justice Sawant remained a strong advocate for the downtrodden, while in post-retirement he distinguished himself as a liberal judicial activist who led the PIL (public interest litigation) movement in Maharashtra.

Among the landmark judgements authored by Justice Sawant were the decisions in the Mandal and S R Bommai cases, in which he was part of constitution benches. He also served as the Chairman of the Press Council of India after his retirement and was instrumental in issuing the guideline against publishing exit-poll surveys till the last of the polls were over.

In 2002, Justice Sawant was part of the Concerned Citizens Tribunal headed by Justice V R Krishna Iyer that inquired into the 2002 Gujarat carnage. The tribunal report included the testimony of former Gujarat home minister, Late Haren Pandya, alleging a cabinet meeting was convened by then chief minister Narendra Modi on the evening of February 27, 2002, where he allegedly advised officials not to interfere with the expression of anger by Hindus against the burning of a train coach of the Sabarmati Express at Godhra that left 58 passengers, most of them returning from Ayodhya, dead and several injured.

In the following year, Justice Sawant was made chairman of a commission instituted to investigate corruption charges against Maharashtra ministers in the then Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) government. His report submitted in 2005 indicted NCP ministers Padmasinh Patil, Suresh Jain and Nawab Malik (Minority Development Minister in the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government) leading to their resignations.

Lately, both Justice Sawant and Kolse-Patil, as the chief organizers, had vehemently denied the charge made in the aftermath of the controversial probe by Pune police and the National Investigation Agency (NIA), that the ‘Elgaar Parishad’ event was organized by alleged Maoists and had triggered the violence in Bhima-Koregaon on January 1, 2018.

Justice Sawant was deeply saddened by the arrests of social activists and academicians and was at pains explaining how the Centre and state governments had avoided going against the proponents of militant Hindutva like Sambhaji Bhide and Milind Ekbote who were suspected to be the masterminds behind the Bhima-Koregaon violence and had instead come up with a strange conspiracy theory that it was all a handiwork of Maoists.

Whether he could hear or read of the latest developments in the controversial case – triggered by a report prepared by US-based Arsenal Consultants alleging the “incriminating” letters found in one of the accused Rona Wilson’s laptop by the investigators were introduced through malware planted by a hacker – could not be confirmed with the family members.

Justice Sawant hadn’t been keeping well for a month or so. But he certainly would have been the happiest person to know that the accusations against the Shaniwar Wada event on December 31, 2017, organised by more than 250 progressive social organisations including many Left-leaning and Ambedkarite groups across Maharashtra, as well as prominent leaders like Prakash Ambedkar and Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani among others, who participated in the ‘Elgaar Parishad,’ were false.

He would have wanted to see the real perpetrators of the violence being brought to book.

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