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Former Chief Justice of India J S Verma, who headed the government-appointed committee to frame a tough law to tackle crime against women in the wake of the December Delhi gangrape incident, died in New Delhi on Monday. He was 80. Yatin Mehta, head of the Institute of Critical Care and Anesthesiology, at Medanta Medicity Hospital in Gurgaon where Verma was admitted, said the former CJI breathed his last at 9:30 pm on Monday.
"He was brought in with liver failure and bleeding from the stomach on Friday," Mehta said. Verma was the 27th Chief Justice of India and served from March 25, 1997, until his retirement on January 18, 1998. He had headed the committee formed by the government to give recommendations for a stringent anti-rape law after the brutal Delhi gangrape of a 23-year-old paramedic student on December 16, 2012.
Most of the recommendations of this committee, which also had Gopal Subramanian and Leela Seth as its members, were accepted by the government.
The government passed an Ordinance based on these suggestions and an anti-rape law was passed by Parliament in the first half of the budget session this year.
