Prashant Bhushan

Prashant Bhushan (born 15 October 1956) is an Indian public interest lawyer in the Supreme Court of India.

He was a member of the faction of the India Against Corruption (IAC) movement known as Team Anna which supported Anna Hazare's campaign for the implementation of the Jan Lokpal Bill.

After a split in IAC, he helped Team Anna form the Aam Aadmi Party.

As counsel for the CPIL, Rajinder Sachar and Bhushan argued that the only way to disinvest in the companies would be to repeal or amend the Acts by which they were nationalised in the 1970s.

Bhushan represented the CPIL in a petition asking for the removal of Neera Yadav from office as Chief Secretary of Uttar Pradesh for alleged corruption.

Yadav had been named in five CBI corruption cases and 23 departmental proceedings.

While still a student, Bhushan wrote The Case that Shook India, a book on the case that set aside Indira Gandhi's election in 1974.

Bhushan was drawn to public activism, influenced by his father.

His main areas of interest have been human rights, environmental protection and accountability of the public servants.

He is associated with various organisations including the Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL), People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), and Transparency International (India).

He is also the convenor of the Working Committee of the Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Judicial Reforms.

Bhushan states that he has taken up about 500 cases dealing with "good causes".

His family background allowed him to work on a pro-bono basis for such cases: according to him, he effectively spends only 25 per cent of his time on paid cases, charging 5 per cent of what other lawyers charge.

He has criticised the other professional lawyers as "amoral", and claims that he never takes up a case unless he feels that his client is "morally right".

Bhushan says that he envisages a transparent and honest legal system, where people can negotiate their own cases without the need of any lawyers.

In 1990, he and his father formed the Committee on Judicial Accountability (CJA) to fight corruption in the judiciary.

The organisation comprised some lawyers and ex-judges.

In 1990, Bhushan wrote a book Bofors, the selling of a nation (1990) on the Bofors scandal.

Prashant Bhushan started focusing more on this issue in 1993, after the Supreme Court Justice V. Ramaswami was not impeached by parliament on corruption charges.

CPIL won a major victory in 2003 when the Supreme Court restrained the Union government from privatising Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum without the approval of Parliament.

In October 2005 the Supreme Court directed the Mulayam Singh state government to remove her from her position.

The case became the first in which an Indian Administrative Service officer in Uttar Pradesh was convicted of corruption.

In February 2006, as counsel for Lok Sevak Sangh, Bhushan submitted to the Supreme Court that the MP Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) might not be constitutionally valid.

A TV channel had recently aired video of a sting in which it appeared that some MPs had taken bribes under the scheme.

In 2007, the Bhushans expanded CJA to include citizens and form the Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reform (CJAR).

In 2009, Prashant Bhushan represented activist Subhash Chandra Agrawal, asking for the Supreme Court and High Court judges to be brought under RTI.

The judges were forced to declare their assets and post it on the court websites.

In a 2009 interview, Bhushan alleged that at least half of the 16 former Chief Justices in the Supreme Court were corrupt.

Harish Salve filed a contempt case against him in 2010, and the Supreme Court asked Bhushan to apologise.

In response, Bhushan submitted an explanation stating why he felt those judges were corrupt.

The Bhushans noted the difficulty of getting documentary evidence because judges are immune from investigation.

Krishna Iyer, a former Supreme Court judge, said that either the Bhushans should be punished for making "false charges" or an independent authority should be set up to scrutinise their allegations.

Bhushan has recommended amendment to the Contempt of Court Act clause, stating that some of its clauses effectively prevent the press from exposing the corruption in the judiciary.

He has also opposed the rule which prevents people from registering a First Information Report against a judge without the permission of the Chief Justice of India.

In 2015, he made several allegations against the party's leadership, its functioning and its deviation from the core ideology, values and commitments.

He is one of the founders of Swaraj Abhiyan and Sambhaavnaa, an Institute of Public Policy and Politics.

Prashant Bhushan is the oldest of the four children of Shanti Bhushan and Kumud Bhushan.

His father is a lawyer-activist and a former Union Law Minister in the Morarji Desai government.

Bhushan was educated at St. Joseph's High School, Allahabad, and at the St Joseph's College, Allahabad.

Bhushan, who dropped out of IIT Madras after first semester and briefly attended Princeton University has a degree in law from Allahabad University.