Debi Prasad Pal

Dr Debi Prasad Pal
Debi Prasad Pal
Former Union Finance Minister Government of India
In office 7 January 1995 – 22 May 1996
Personal details
Born	1 November 1927 (1927-11-01) (age 84) Kolkata, West Bengal
Nationality	Indian
Political party	Indian National Congress
Spouse(s)	Lakshmi Rani Pal
Children	None
Residence	Kolkata
Alma mater	Presidency College, Kolkata Calcutta University
Occupation	Politician
Profession	Lawyer
Religion	Hindu
Website	Lok Sabha Bio Sketch

Debi Prasad Pal (Bengali: দেবী প্রসাদ পাল) is a Senior Advocate practicing in the Supreme Court of India and High Courts of India.^[1] He is 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.

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 bachelors 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.

Legal career

Dr. Pal started practicing in the Calcutta High Court in 1959. He was thereafter appointed as 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 current 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

As Finance Minister, he went to the United Nations along with the then Prime Minister of India Atal Behari Vajpayee as India's representative. He was the chairman of the Finance Commission of India and a member of the Planning Commission of India.

Philanthropy

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

Senior Advocate

Currently he practices 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 as 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
4. ^ Cancer Foundation of India
5. ^ Debi Prasad Pal represents Vedanta Resources and Sterlite Group
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
10. ^ Govt steps up to re-write and clean up financial-sector laws
11. ^ Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission (FSLRC)

Persondata
Name	Pal, Debi Prasad
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1 November 1927
Place of birth	Kolkata, West Bengal
Date of death
Place of death