NEW DELHI: L M Singhvi, eminent jurist and former High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, died on Monday after ailing for a brief period. Singhvi, 76, is survived by wife, Kamila, son and Congress MP, Abhishek Singhvi, and a daughter. He had served a term each in Lok Sabha (1962-1967) and Rajya Sabha (1998-2004).
A multifaceted personality, Laxmi Mall Singhvi, successfully played the roles of a diplomat, jurist, parliamentarian, litterateur and a champion of human rights. He headed the High-Level Committee on Indian Diaspora appointed by the previous National Democratic Alliance government and had been studying India's ties with its Diaspora since his days as a law student at Harvard in 1951.
Singhvi also conceived the idea of an annual Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, the event organized by the Indian government each January to engage with its 25 million-Diaspora spread across 130 countries. In the midst of a long list of accomplishments, his stint as the longest serving High Commissioner to the United Kingdom will always stand out. In recognition of his contribution to Law and Public Affairs, the President honored him with the "Padma Bhushan" in 1998. From arbitration tribunals to diplomacy and international fora, he switched roles with effortless ease.
Singhvi was elected as President of the Supreme Court Bar Association on several occasions. He held the post for the second-highest number of times with late M.C. Setalvad being the only one to have more stints than him. As senior advocate of the Supreme Court, he was also the founder president of the Supreme Court Bar Association Trust. Singhvi was a poet, essayist and an author. He was at home in many languages.
His book "Freedom on Trial" and "A Tale of Three Cities" have been widely acclaimed. He was President, Authors' Guild of India for nearly a decade. Singhvi won accolades for his book "Freedom on Trial." The book has been reprinted many times over. He was also elected as Mahatma Gandhi Professor at Leicester University and delivered lectures on "Jurisprudence of Non-Violence." It was he who conceived and founded Law Day, which is widely observed by the Bench and the Bar in India on November 26 each year.
The constitutional expert in him saw him shape up the constitutions of Bangladesh, Nepal and South Africa. Among his of his few last assignments was his stint as a Commissioner of Inquiry into the Administration of Justice in Trinidad and Tobago. Singhvi was invited by the UNDP to advise African countries for sustaining and strengthening democracy through Rule of Law.
He was elected Honorary Tagore Law Professor in 1973 at Calcutta University, one of the oldest and most highly regarded Chairs in the world in the field of Law, and was the Founder-President (later Honorary Patron) of the Commonwealth Legal Education Association, London. In 1956, Singhvi attended the International Legal Science Conference under the auspices of UNESCO in Barcelona, Spain, as one of the four Indian delegates. He is credited with the setting up of the Institute of Constitutional and Parliamentary Studies, Human Rights Rectangle, Centre for Human Rights Education and Training, Centre for the Study of Law and Society.
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