Ajit Singh Bains hails from village Mahipur, Dist. Hoshiarpur. His father was S. Gurbax Singh, a freedom fighter, spent more than a decade in British jails during India ’s fight for independence.

Justice Bains graduated with a MA (Economics) and LLB in 1950 from Lucknow University . He was the lecturer for economics in Lyallpur Khasla College , Jalandar from 1950 to 53. He began his legal practice as an advocate in Hoshiarpur from 1954-60. Served in the Punjab & Haryana High Court in Chandigarh thereafter. He was appointed judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court in 1974, through his retirement in 1984.

Justice Bains was appointed Chairman of a Government Commission to review the cases of detainees arrested from 1982 through 1984 in Punjab . He was instrumental in ordering the release of about 4,000 detainees against whom there was no evidence of guilt.

In 1986, he founded the Punjab Human Rights Organization, a non-governmental organization, and since, he has been working against the violations of Human Rights by the Punjab police. He has sent inquiry reports to the United Nations (UN) organization, Amnesty International and other international bodies.

In 1992, Justice Bains was arrested on false charges, for his Human Rights activities in Punjab , by the then Beant Singh government. He spent six months in jail.

Justice Bains plays golf regularly and continues his Human Rights work un-deterred.

Culprits are more powerful today, Aug 2005