Mr. S.M. Bagai
Past Vice President (1991-1994) Dharamshila Cancer Foundation and Research Centre
Mr. S. M. Bagai was born on 15.9.1928, New Delhi. He did his schooling from Cambridge School Delhi and graduated from Hindu College, Delhi in 1947 and Masters from Delhi School of Economics in 1949. After his masters he did a Law course in 1976 and became member of Delhi High Court Bar Association. He joined the Indian Revenue Service in 1953 and was posted in Calcutta. He transferred to Delhi 1957 and remained there (except six month as Appellate Assistant Commissioner, Jaipur and Vigilance Commissioner, Nagaland 1984-86) till his retirement as member of Income tax Settlement Commission in 1989.
He was in the Foreign Exchange Enforcement Deparatment from 1968 to 1972 first as Deputy Director in charge of whole of northern India and later Additional Director (Adjucation) with an all India jurisdiction. His main work was to focused on checking of large scale money laundering and Tax Evasion. He was Secretary MRTP Commission, New Delhi from 1978 to 1983. While serving as Vigilance Commissioner he was able to unearth a large scale medical scandal going on for years and prepared a model Lok Ayukt bill at the instance of Shri Rajiv Gandhi.
Thereafter served as Member of the Income Tax Settlement Commission, New Delhi. In 1986 was appointed to a four-member team under Shri Rangarajan, the then Deputy Governor of RBI to enquire into alleged syphoning of funds of four Public Sector Banks by a large Industrial Group. The report was submitted by the PM late Shri VP Singh to the Parliament.
Alongside his service, he became Trustee of Bani Jagtiani Trust on 2.1.1978 and is still is Managing Trustee of the Trust. The Trust has been funding various NGOs doing work in the field of education and health care. Various hospitals of Ramakrishna Mission, Kankhal, Vrindavan and elsewhere as also to others like Central Himalayan Research Action Group and Dharamshila Cancer Hospital and Research Centre have received funds from this Trust.
In 1980 he founded a Trust ‘Sudhira Bagai Memorial Charitable Trust as was its Managing Trustee till it was wounded up in 31.1.2014, in memory of his late wife and erstwhile colleague Sudhira Bagai who died of cancer in 1976.
On 27.6.91 he became one of the founder members of Dharamshila Cancer Foundation & Research Centre and later its Vice Chairman from 21.4.1994 to 8.10.1994. From 1996 to 2010 he became Member of the Executive Committee of a 200 bedded multispecialty charitable hospital being run by Rama Krishna Mission Sevashrama Kankhal, Hardwar.
Post retirement he had also worked as an Activist of ‘Independent Initiative’ set up by late Justice Krishna Iyer, a former renowned former Supreme Court Judge to fight corruption, casteism, communalization and criminalization of politics. He was assigned a role to observe polling in Meham constituency as a result of which the then Chief Minister lost his post.
In 1991, he was made leader of a team comprising of lawyers (one of the them is now on the Supreme Court) and others to observe the Kar Seva in Ayodha in connection with a threat of demolition what was referred to us Babri Masjid. His report exposed the contours of the communal frenzy prevailing there and threats of demolishing what they described and unfortunately describe as ‘Babri Masjid’. Fortunately no damage was cause to the structure in 1991. Actually it was the Ram Lala temple that they had destroyed.
In 2007 he published a genealogical and historical book written by me entitled ‘The Lives & History of the Bagais of Dera Ismail Khan’. A copy of this was presented to Imran Khan.
He is presently engage in the process of publishing of Life and Works of a very important spiritual personality and is also still trying to get his pet project ‘Greening the Slums of Vasant Vihar implemented by the Govt.
Besides professional and NGO work he has have done a lot of mountain trekking to places like the Rohtang Pass, Badrinath, Jamnotri, Amarnath amd Kailash Mansarover.
