Congress veteran and senior Gujarat HC advocate Krishnakant Vakharia passes away

Ahmedabad, Jan 22 (PTI) Senior Congress leader and Gujarat high court advocate Krishnakant Vakharia died here on Sunday at 92.

Vakharia, a former chairman of the legal cell of Gujarat Congress, breathed his last at his residence. He was not well, Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi said.

A native of Bagasara village in Amreli district, Vakharia studied law in Ahmedabad. He started his legal career in 1954 in Rajkot.

He was a successful lawyer and a known expert on the Constitution with six decades of practice in the Gujarat High Court, Doshi said. Vakharia mentored many successful lawyers including Solicitor General Tushar Mehta.

He was a legal adviser to Gujarat Congress until 2010 as the president of the party’s legal cell.

Vakharia also served the Gujarati diaspora as a founder and chairman of Vishwa Gujarati Samaj, Doshi said.

He is survived by a son, also a Gujarat High Court lawyer, and two daughters.

Vakharia became involved in politics as a student and went on to become a labour activist under the banner of the Indian National Trade Union Congress, stated a release issued by the state Congress unit.

He contested the second Lok Sabha election from then Girnar and now Amreli seat in 1957 as a member of the Praja Socialist Party. He had also contested the assembly elections from Babra, Jasdan and Dhari seats, it said.