Amar Singh Chahal
The organization is the brainchild of S. Amar Singh Chahal,
renowned Criminal lawyer of Punjab and Chandigarh, who is its president.
HE was born on 4 June 1944 in village Kaleke in District Amritsar.
He is the younger son of his parents. He is a self-made man who
himself wrote his destiny. He paved his way through the thorns.
In 1960, after completing his graduation he left his village and
came to Chandigarh where he got employed. In the morning, he performed
his duties and studied law in the evening. Hailing from a peasant’s
family, he was not financially sound. He burnt midnight oil and
completed his law in1970. Thereafter he left the job, joined the
legal profession, and started practicing law in the district Courts,
Chandigarh. From there, he did not look behind and progressed rapidly.
Today his hard work and dedication to the profession and expertise
over criminal law have brought him laurels in the legal circle.
He got the privilege to head the District Bar Association, Chandigarh.
Perturbed over the attack on Sikh Shrines including Golden Temple
in Amritsar by the Indian Army in June 1984, he joined active politics
in Punjab. Blessed with the versatile personality, he soon became
popular in Punjab Politics. With his in built quality of leadership
and sincerity to the Sikh cause, he became an eyesore in the eyes
of the government. He was detained under National security Act along
with many other leaders and remained in preventive detention for
sixteen months. Later he was falsely implicated in two cases of
murder and attempt to murder in 1984 but was discharged by the court.
His services to the Sikh cause gave him due recognition as a true
leader and the Sikh community made him the President of the Co-ordination
Committee of Gurdwaras and Sikh institutions of Chandigarh. He remained
at the post for few years, but when his professional duties affected
his commitment to the cause, he resigned from the post and shifted
to legal profession studiously and strenuously. During the period
of state tyranny in Punjab, he witnessed many cases of Police brutality
and his kind heart was moved at the colossal loss of human lives
and he decided to form an organization of like minded persons to
provide free legal aid to the victims of state violence and also
involved many lawyers in the noble cause of serving the humanity.
When he started defending the cases of people who were dubbed as
“terrorists” by the police in the courts, he drew public
attention and many people accused him of encouraging terrorism on
the one hand and on the other hand, thousands of distressed persons
approached him with gory tale of killing of their kith and kin in
fake encounter, police torture an d extra-judicial killing committed
by the Punjab Police in the name of “fighting terrorism”.
At present, he has many cases of acquittals of innocent people in
terrorist related offences, to his credit. Finding few other like-minded
lawyers inclined to promote the cause of human rights; he formed
the organization, Lawyers for Human Rights in 1987. The word “International”
was added later, when the organization extended its jurisdiction
to international fora. He had acclaimed wide appreciation for fighting
the case of a lady IAS officer of Punjab, Mrs. Rupan Deol Bajaj
against the then Director General of Police, Mr. K.P.S. Gill, who
was accused of molestation of the lady officer in a dinner party
under the influence of liquor in 1998. At present, he is defending
the assassins of the slain Chief Minister of Punjab, Beant Singh,
who was killed on 31 August 1995 in a bomb blast in Civil Secretariat
at Chandigarh.
He also contested the general elections as an independent candidate
twice, but lost in both time, due to his non-compromising nature
with cheap and shrewd politics. He is at present the president of
Chandigarh Unit of Samajwadi Party, a national party headed by former
Defence Minister, Mulayam Singh Yadav. He is associated with many
social organizations and has been donating for social causes generously.
His son Manpreet Singh, an upcoming lawyer and two daughters from
medical profession are following his footsteps and provide free
legal as well as medical aid to the poor and indigent persons. He
is regularly paying donations to many needy persons and running
a charitable hospital where his children provide free medical treatment
to the poor and indigent persons. He has recently contributed a
sum of Rupees fifty one thousand in the memory of his father, Late
S. Sohan Singh, in a trust created by the organization for providing
rehabilitation to the kith and kin of those killed during the period
of turbulence in Punjab. Besides this, he is providing fee legal
aid to numerous litigants and serving the cause of human rights.
In spite of having huge wealth and property, he is the symbol of
simplicity. He is always eager to help the needy persons. He is
quite amiable even with his enemies.
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