Congress veteran and senior Gujarat HC advocate Krishnakant Vakharia passes away

AHMEDABAD, (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. (PTI)