Former Union Minister Ashwani Kumar to attend ‘Pantheonisation ceremony’ of jurist Robert Badinter in Paris

Ashwani Kumar, former Union Minister of Law and Justice in the second term of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, and senior advocate of the Supreme Court, will attend the ‘Panthéonisation ceremony’ of eminent French jurist Robert Badinter in Paris on October 9. Mr. Kumar has thanked French President Emmanuel Macron for the invitation.

Panthéonisation is the ceremonial act of interring (burying) or commemorating a departed individual at the Panthéon in Paris. It is an honour conferred by the French Republic on individuals who have made exceptional contributions to that nation in various fields. Among the eminent French personalities interred at the Panthéon in Paris are Voltaire, Jean‑Jacques Rousseau, Victor Hugo, Émile Zola, Louis Braille, and Marie and Pierre Curie.

“Mr. Badinter was a distinguished humanist, jurist, and a statesman of France who was a relentless crusader for the abolition of the death penalty. I had the honour of knowing Mr. Robert Badinter, a former Justice Minister of France and President of the Constitutional Council of France, for the last several years, and had the opportunity of visiting him in Paris on a few occasions in recent years,” Mr. Kumar said in a press statement.

“His selflessness and passionate espousal of human rights and public causes distinguished him as a great son of the French Republic. I thank President Macron and the French government for according Mr. Robert Badinter the exceptional honour of being interred in the Pantheon in Paris,” Mr. Kumar said.