J.S. Verma

New Delhi, April 22 (PTI): Former Chief Justice of India J.S. Verma, who headed the government-appointed panel to frame tougher laws to tackle crime against women, died tonight of multi-organ failure. He was 80.

Verma breathed his last around 9.30pm at Medanta Hospital in Gurgaon, said Dr Yatin Mehta, a senior doctor at the health care unit.

“He was brought in with liver failure and bleeding from stomach on Friday,” Mehta said.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh described Verma as a “man of vast understanding” whose “generous advice and guidance” he would miss very much.

Verma, also a former chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, was the 27th Chief Justice of India from March 25, 1997, until his retirement on January 18, 1998.

He had handled close to 470 cases since becoming an apex court judge in June 1989.

Late last year, Verma was appointed the head of the panel formed in the aftermath the brutal December 16 bus gang rape of a 23-year-old paramedic student. It presented its report in January.

The government accepted most of the recommendations of the panel, which also had as its members former solicitor-general Gopal Subramanian and Leila Seth, the chief justice of Himachal Pradesh High Court in the early 90s.

The committee recommended stringent punishment, but without the death sentence, for rapists — ranging from not less than 20 years to imprisonment for life.

The government promulgated an ordinance based on the suggestions and an anti-rape law was passed by Parliament in the first half of the budget session.

Condoling the death tonight, eminent jurist Soli Sorabjee said Verma was a man of “unquestionable integrity” and one who always supported a good cause.

Born on January 18, 1933, Verma completed his early education in Satna, Madhya Pradesh. He began his legal career in 1955, becoming a judge of Madhya Pradesh High Court in June 1973 and the chief justice in June 1986. He also served as chief justice of Rajasthan High Court from September 1986 to mid-1989.