Advocate Utsav Bains, who has stirred the nation with his affidavit in the Supreme Court that sexual harassment complaint against the chief Justice of India, Ranjan Gogoi, was a conspiracy to make him resign, is known for his work on child rights in Chandigarh, the city where he was born and brought up in.

The 32-year-old lawyer is the son of human rights lawyer RS Bains and grandson of former judge of Punjab and Haryana high court Ajit Singh Bains. Utsav graduated from Panjab University and has briefly practised at Punjab and Haryana high court. For two years now, he has been in Delhi.

Utsav has to his credit a documentary on child rights and in 2012, he had filed a plea for probe into sexual exploitation of children at a shelter in Rohtak, Haryana.

Known as Apna Ghar sexual exploitation case, the matter was later probed by the CBI. It was this case, which got him associated with Harsh Mander, then a member of national advisory council, headed by United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi, during the Congress rule.

After this, he attended a programme at Harvard Law School on ‘child rights advocacy’.

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For nearly two years now, he has been representing various witnesses in the sexual exploitation cases against self-styled godman, Asaram.

In Punjab and Haryana high court, he had brought one Bobby Joshi to court in 2016, who had claimed that rapes took place during the 2016 February Jat quota violence in Murthal, Haryana.

Earlier this month, Utsav had hit the headlines by refusing to be a part of guests on Queen Elizabeth’s birthday celebrations, organised by British High Commission in Delhi.

At high court in Chandigarh, he has appeared only in few cases, but even senior lawyers agree that he is a “sharp and energetic” lawyer, who won’t succumb to any kind of pressure.

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First Published: Apr 25, 2019 09:38 IST