Former Union Minister P. Shiv Shankar passed away here on Monday morning after a prolonged illness.
He was 89 and is survived by wife Laxmi Bai, one son and a daughter.
Born in 1927, into a family of 11 brothers and sisters, Shiv Shankar and his elder brother were asked by their father to work as salesmen in a cloth showroom in order to financially support the large family.
The two brothers were interested in studying further so they ran away from home and landed in Amritsar. Both of them joined Hindu College Amritsar where Shiv Shanker pursued B.A. LLB (Hons.) during day time, while selling peanuts and doing shoe polish at Amritsar railway station in the evening and at night.
After completing law, he came back to Hyderabad and started his practice. He was appointed Judge of A.P. High Court in 1972 but resigned from the same in a year.
He started practising mostly in the Supreme Court and partly in the A.P. High Court. Former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, on hearing about his excellence in Constitutional Law, requested him to handle her post-Emergency cases both in Shah Commission and elsewhere.
As a recognition to the way he handled them he was requested to contest from Secunderabad.
He contested the byelection to the Secunderabad Lok Sabha constituency in 1979 on the Indian National Congress ticket. He became Union Minister for Law, Justice and Company Affairs in 1980.
Following the assassination of Indira Gandhi, he was one of the four Ministers who were inducted into the Rajiv Gandhi cabinet.
Back into active politics
Consequent to the razing of the Babri Masjid, he quit membership of Parliament. Subsequently, he served as Governor of Sikkim and Kerala but came back into active politics winning the Tenali Lok Sabha seat and went on to become Deputy Leader of Opposition.
In 2004, he developed differences with the Congress high command and levelled allegations about the selection of candidates. After lying low for some time, in 2008 he joined the Praja Rajyam Party floated by actor Chiranjeevi.
Telangana Chief Minister K.Chandrasekhar Rao visited his residence in Jubilee Hills and offered floral tributes to the departed leader.
Congress leaders from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh – Md. Ali Shabbir, K.V.P.Ramachandra Rao and others paid tributes to the departed leader. Leader of the Opposition in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly and YSR Congress president Y.S.Jaganmohan Reddy condoled the death of Shiv Shankar.
The last rites would be performed at the Puranapul crematorium on Tuesday morning. The Telangana government issued a statement this afternoon saying that the last rites would be performed with police honours.
