Senior Advocate Zafaryab Jilani, Secretary of All India Muslim Personal Law Board and former Additional Advocate General for Uttar Pradesh, breathed his last at Nishat Hospital in Qaiserbagh, Lucknow,on May 17. He was 73.
He underwent a prolonged illness followed by a fall in May 2021 during which he suffered brain haemorrhage. “He had multiple health issues for which he was being treated. He had a urinary tract infection which had spread to his lungs. His kidney and brain were also affected. All these issues started after he fell in May 2021 and suffered brain haemorrhage,” a family member reportedly said.
As a Senior Advocate and Convenor of the Babri Masjid Action Committee,Jilani spearheaded the legal battle for Babri Masjid right up to the Supreme Court for over four decades.
After the Supreme Court verdict in the Ram Janmabhoomi case in November 2019, Jilani had remarked, “The judgement has just been pronounced, it says a lot of things about the Constitution and about secularism. We are very dissatisfied with this judgement. Article 142 does not let you do this.”
He also opposed the Sunni Central Waqf Board’s stand of constructing a mosque on the land given by the state government in Ayodhya. “The exchange of land for the mosque was not permissible under the Waqf Act and is illegal under the Sharia law,” Jilani maintained.
Jilani was among the decorated alumnus of Aligarh Muslim University, from where he got his law degree.He was very soft-spoken and kind-hearted by nature. His in-depth knowledge of law impressed his colleagues and peers.
“During his time as the Additional Advocate General, even when I was arguing against him, he forgot all about it once we were outside the court. Then, we would go back to being friends. He always kept what happened in court to the courtroom only,” Senior advocate SFA Naqvi was reported as saying.
“He was among the most soft-spoken and kind-hearted people I knew. There was a grace about him which is hard to put in words. But his arguments were never soft in court, and he had the law on his fingertips. We have lost a pioneer in law, and he will be missed,”Naqvi further said.
Jilani is survived by daughter Maria Rehan, sons Najafzafar Jilani and Anaszafar Jilani, and wife Azra Jilani. Jilani was a native of Malihabad town but his family resides in Qaiserbagh. He was buried at the Qaiserbagh graveyard late in the evening on May 17.