State Lokpal Justice Jai Singh Sekhon dead

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 14

Punjab Lokpal Justice Jai Singh Sekhon, a former judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, 84, breathed his last late last evening.

His cremation at the Sector 25 cremation ground this afternoon was attended by sitting and former judges of the High Court, members of the legal fraternity and his family.

An eminent jurist and legal luminary, Justice Sekhon was elevated as a judge of the High Court on March 8, 1988. He retired on May 4, 1994. He was also the Chief Commissioner of the gurdwara elections, a member of the Punjab State Human Rights Commission and the Haryana Jails Reform Commission before being appointed Lokpal in November 2012.

Former Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court Justice S.S. Sodhi said he was one of the finest judges in the Indian judiciary. “We were colleagues as lawyers, as sessions judges and as High Court judges. He was par excellence, a man of his time and in many ways even ahead of it. He was an excellent human being,” Justice Sodhi said.

Justice Kuldip Singh, a former Supreme Court judge, said he was not just a good lawyer but also a brilliant student. “I knew him since 1953. He was my class fellow at Law College in Jalandhar. He conducted him superbly as a judge. His integrity was impeccable.”

Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal and Cabinet ministers Dr Daljit Singh Cheema and Surjit Singh Rakhra expressed grief over the demise of the Punjab Lokpal, the elder brother of Cabinet minister Janmeja Singh Sekhon.