Debi Prasad Pal

Debi Prasad Pal (1 November 1927 – 14 May 2021) was a Senior Advocate practicing in the Supreme Court of India and High Courts of India.[1] He was a former Minister of State for Finance, a former Judge of Calcutta High Court and a three-time former Member of Parliament (MP) in Lok Sabha.

Dr.
Debi Prasad Pal
Pal in 2010
Former Union Finance Minister
Government of India
In office
7 January 1995 – 22 May 1996
Member of Indian Parliament for Calcutta North West
In office
1989–1998
Preceded byAshoke Kumar Sen
Succeeded bySudip Bandyopadhyay
ConstituencyCalcutta North West
Personal details
Born(1927-11-01)1 November 1927
Calcutta, Bengal Presidency, British India
Died14 May 2021(2021-05-14) (aged 93)
Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Political partyIndian National Congress
SpouseLakshmi Rani Pal
RelativesRadha Binod Pal (father-in-law)
ResidenceKolkata
Alma materSurendranath College (Ripon College)
Calcutta University
OccupationPolitician
ProfessionLawyer
WebsiteLok Sabha Bio Sketch

Early life and education

Debi Prasad Pal was born in 1927 in Kolkata.[2] His father was noted scholar and educationist Aswini Kumar Pal and mother was Sarala Bala Pal. He did his bachelor's studies in Presidency College and got his M.A. degree from Calcutta University. He was awarded the prestigious Doctor of Letters (D.Litt.) degree soon after that for his outstanding contribution to English literature. He got his Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) degree in 1961 for his seminal work. He stood first throughout his academic career. He is the son-in-law of Justice Radhabinod Pal, who was an International Judge.

Dr. Pal started practicing in the Calcutta High Court in 1959. He was thereafter appointed a justice in the High Court but resigned within 6 months to rejoin private practice.

Political career

He started his political journey as a member of the Congress party. He contested the Lok Sabha election for the first time in 1989. He was selected by the Congress (I) for the Calcutta North-West parliamentary constituency.[3] He beat his political and legal guru Ashoke Kumar Sen by a huge margin. He was chosen to be the Union Minister of State for Finance by the then Prime Minister of India P. V. Narasimha Rao. He worked with Finance Minister Manmohan Singh, the former Prime Minister of India. He was also elected for the Lok Sabha in the years 1991 and 1996. He briefly joined Trinamool Congress after getting an invitation from its leader Mamata Banerjee but eventually came back to the Congress.

Union Minister of Finance

He was the Union Minister of State for Finance in the Narasimha Rao Government from 1995 - 1996. He was also a member of The Tenth Finance Commission of India.

Philanthropy

Dr. Pal is well known for his charity work. He was one of the founding members of Cancer Foundation of India.[4]

Senior Advocate

He practiced in the Supreme Court of India and High Courts of India. He is considered to be one of the fine lawyers of India in taxation matters. He was one of the highest paid lawyers and was one of the highest income-tax payers in India.[5]

Member of Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission

Dr. Pal has been recently appointed a member of the newly constituted Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission (FSLRC). The Commission is headed by retired Justice B. N. Srikrishna.[6][7][8][9][10][11]

References
  1. Parliament of India Profile
  2. Short Bio-data as Member of Parliament
  3. "Biographical Sketch on the Lok Sabha website". Archived from the original on 3 July 2011. Retrieved 16 November 2009.
  4. "Cancer Foundation of India". Archived from the original on 24 November 2009. Retrieved 16 November 2009.
  5. "Debi Prasad Pal represents Vedanta Resources and Sterlite Group". Archived from the original on 2 January 2010. Retrieved 18 November 2009.
  6. Resolution Nofifying Constitution of Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission (FSLRC) Issued
  7. Top bankers, regulators & legal experts to assist Sri Krishna in FSLRC
  8. Financial sector bills to be rejigged
  9. "Debi Prasad Pal joins financial sector reforms panel". Archived from the original on 28 September 2011. Retrieved 4 April 2011.
  10. Govt steps up to re-write and clean up financial-sector laws
  11. Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission (FSLRC)
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