Eminent jurist and former Solicitor General TR Andhyarujina passed away in Mumbai on Tuesday. He was 84.

Andhyarujinam, who served as Solicitor General from 1996-98, had the rare honour of assisting  the great constitutional genius HM Seervai in his initial days as a young lawyer. His association with Seervai earned him the privilege of witnessing the epoch-making event in judicial history, when a 13-judge Bench debated on the inviolability of fundamental rights and went on to formulate the basic structure doctrine in the famous Kesavananda Bharati Case. Andhyarujina appeared along with Seervai for the Kerala Government in the case and even wrote a book recently on the behind-the-scene details of this historic decision of 1973.

Before joining the bar, Andhyarujina was selected for Indian Foreign Services in 1958 securing third rank in the then ICS exam but he opted for advocacy as his father was a lawyer and close friend of Seervai. But he never regretted his choice and first rose to eminence as Advocate General of Maharashtra. There was a streak of excellence he inherited from his mentor Seervai and this was visible in the string of cases that he immortalised with his arguments.

Besides the Kesavananda Bharati case, he had to his credit the Vishakha case (law protecting rights of women at workplace), the Parliamentary Privileges Case, JMM Bribery case involving former Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao, and the Aruna Shanbaug case dealing with passive euthanasia among many in his illustrious career spanning over six decades. He was made a senior advocate at the age of 38 from Bombay HC but shifted base to Delhi after his appointment as Solicitor General.

A professor of law in various universities in India and abroad, Andhyarujina authored several books and contributed several articles as a part-time columnist in leading dailies.