Swaraj Kaushal (born 12 July 1952) is an Indian criminal lawyer practicing in

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the NCT Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati B ...

. He was designated as a senior advocate by the

Supreme Court of India The Supreme Court of India (IAST: ) is the supreme judicial authority of India and is the highest court of the Republic of India under the constitution. It is the most senior constitutional court, has the final decision in all legal matters ...

at age 34, and he became the Governor of Mizoram at the age of 37, serving between 1990 and 1993.

Early life

Swaraj Kaushal was born to Madan Lal and Lajyawati on 12 July 1952 in

Solan Solan is a city in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh and the district headquarters of Solan district. It is located south of the state capital, Shimla. Solan has an average elevation of . The city is situated between Chandigarh (joint capi ...

Patiala and East Punjab States Union Patiala () is a city in southeastern Punjab, northwestern India. It is the fourth largest city in the state and is the administrative capital of Patiala district. Patiala is located around the '' Qila Mubarak'' (the 'Fortunate Castle') construct ...

{now part of

Himachal Pradesh Himachal Pradesh (; ; "Snow-laden Mountain Province") is a state in the northern part of India. Situated in the Western Himalayas, it is one of the thirteen mountain states and is characterized by an extreme landscape featuring several peak ...

). He received his

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

degree from D.A.V. School, Chandigarh and completed LLB from Faculty of Laws, Panjab University, Chandigarh.

Career

During the Emergency of 1975–77, he defended socialist leader

George Fernandes George Mathew Fernandes (3 June 1930 – 29 January 2019) was an Indian trade unionist, statesman, and journalist, who served as the 22nd Defence Minister of India from 1998 until 2004. He was a member of Lok Sabha for over 30 years, starting ...

in the famous Baroda dynamite case. He secured release of the underground

Mizo Mizo may refer to: *Mizo people, an ethnic group native to north-eastern India, western Myanmar (Burma) and eastern Bangladesh *Mizo language, a language spoken by the Mizo people *Mizoram, a state in Northeast India *Lusei people, an ethnic group ...

leader,

Laldenga Laldenga (11 June 1927 – 7 July 1990) was a Mizo nationalist and politician from Mizoram in northeast India. He was the founder of the Mizo National Front, a social organisation turned political party. He was the first Chief Minister of Mizora ...

, in the conspiracy trial in 1979. Thereafter, he was the constitutional adviser to the underground

Mizo National Front The Mizo National Front ( MNF) is a regional political party in Mizoram, India. MNF emerged from the Mizo National Famine Front, which was formed by Pu Laldenga to protest against the inaction of the Indian central government towards the famin ...

during negotiations with Government of India. Many years of negotiations resulted in the signing of

Mizoram Peace Accord The Mizoram Peace Accord, 1986 was an official agreement between the Government of India and the Mizo National Front (MNF) to end insurgency and violence in Mizoram, India, that started in 1966. The Mizo National Front was an organisation of Miz ...

, which he helped write on 30 June 1986, which ended 20 years of insurgency. He was appointed the first Advocate General of Mizoram, the state's premier legal officer in 1987 at the age of 34. He was the youngest-ever advocate general in the country. He is an expert on India's northeast region and its insurgency problem. He was designated as a senior advocate by

on 20 December 1986 at the age of 34, a notable achievement in the legal profession.

Governor of Mizoram

He was the Governor of Mizoram from 8 February 1990 to 9 February 1993.

Member of Parliament

He was a

member of parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house ...

between 1998 and 2004 as a member of the

Haryana Vikas Party Haryana Vikas Party (HVP) (translation: Haryana Development Party) was a political party in the Indian state of Haryana. Its president was Bansi Lal and general secretary Chaudhary Surender Singh. After parted company with Congress in 1996, Ba ...

, representing the state of

Haryana Haryana (; ) is an Indian state located in the northern part of the country. It was carved out of the former state of East Punjab on 1 Nov 1966 on a linguistic basis. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with less than 1.4% () of India's land ...

. During 1998-99 and 2000–2004, he was a member of

Rajya Sabha The Rajya Sabha, wikisource:Constitution of India/Part V#Article 80, constitutionally the Council of States, is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of India. , it has a maximum membership of 245, of which 233 are elected by the legisl ...

Personal life

He married

Sushma Swaraj Sushma Swaraj () (''née'' Sharma; 14 February 1952 – 6 August 2019) was an Indian lawyer, politician, and diplomat who served as the Minister of External Affairs of India in the first Narendra Modi government from 2014 to 2019. She is only ...

on 13 July 1975. Their only child, Bansuri Swaraj, is a graduate from

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

and a barrister from

Inner Temple The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional associations for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and W ...

. On 6 August 2019, Sushma Swaraj died of a cardiac arrest at AIIMS Delhi following a heart attack in the evening.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaushal, Swaraj 20th-century Indian lawyers Living people Governors of Mizoram 1952 births Indian Senior Counsel Rajya Sabha members from Haryana Haryana Vikas Party politicians Samyukta Socialist Party politicians