Coal block case petitioner lawyer ML Sharma passes away

New Delhi, Dec 21 (PTI) Advocate Manohar Lal Sharma, who filed many public interest litigations, including the coal block allocation scam case, has passed away.

Sharma, 69, passed away on December 19 after suffering from a kidney ailment, a family source said.

In a landmark judgment, the top court in 2014 declared coal allocation between 1993 and 2009 illegal, arbitrary, non-transparent and devoid of any procedure.

Sharma filed many PILs, including the government's decision to abrogate Article 370, probe in the Pegasus spyware issue and the Rafale case.

He also defended an accused in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape case in Delhi. PTI PKS ARI