Thread by @barandbench

Virtual meeting to condole passing of Indian jurist and former Attorney General for India, Soli Sorabji

Lalit Bhasin, President of SILF: The law reports are full of the monumental cases in which Soli appeared... during his seven-decade tenure as a lawyer.

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Attorney General KK Venugopal speaks, recounts of the large number of cases in which he and Sorabjee and appeared in together.

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AG Venugopal: When I think of Soli, one would imagine a legend of the law, a great jurist, an attorney general twice over... and above all a lawyer who was innovative and part of the evolution of the Constitution of India

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AG Venugopal: According to me, his success in SR Bommai.. is one of the feathers in his cap...The judgment as a deathblow to the abuse of power by the Centre...

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AG Venugopal: I was appearing (at the time) for Karunanidhi during the height of emergency ...

The allegation that he had taken a bribe was sufficient to dismiss the government in a State, Venugopal recalls.

AG Venugopal: Today if corruption was the basis for dismissal of governments, I wonder how many of the governments could survive.. just on allegation of corruption, which is easy to make.

AG Venugopal: (SR Bommai) This is one of his greatest achievements... After that, the question of dismissing governments under Article 356 has become very very rare indeed.

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Soli Sorabjee was a lover of poetry, lover of music, of gourmet and above all a great human being, AG Venugopal adds.

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AG Venugopal: He recently celebrated his 91st birthday in style... I excused myself because of health reasons... I however wrote him a letter... I called him, he took the telephone and told me he would call me back later. He did not, and I felt hurt...

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AG Venugopal adds that later Pinky Anand also called him, he said would call her back. Sorabjee did not call either person.

The next he heard was that Sorabjee had passed away because of COVID.

AG: Obviously, he did not want to exhaust me or Pinky...

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Senior Advocate Fali Nariman speaks, refers to tributes that have poured in, notes that Sorabjee was described as a fighter for rights, who died in honour and glory

Nariman: Permit me to add a footnote to these rich tributes

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Fali Nariman: In the past 3 years, whenever Soli and I met, we would greet each other with an exchange of reminisces... not of cases where we had appeared against each other, that was stale stuff

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Nariman recalls that he and Sorabjee exchanged anecdotes from the time they practiced under Jamshedji Kanga, "the uncut diamond of the Bombay Bar", as CJ Chagla had once termed him.

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Fali Nariman recalls one of the last anecdotes they exchanged.

Nariman: Once long ago a Senior Advocate of the Bombay High Court walked in (to the chambers of Jamshedji Kanga).. Jahangir ji, that was his first name, had come to see Jamshedji for a somewhat delicate matter.

Nariman: Neither of us (Sorabjee or Nariman) had the good sense to withdraw, we kept sitting and listening in... there were no secrets in the chamber... it transpired that Jahangir had come to seek advice ...

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Nariman recounts: His problem (Jahangir's) was that he had been a fixture as counsel before a particular judge.. and that judge had recently retired, Jahangirji had been left without work."What about my future?", he asked Jamshedji

Nariman recounts: Jamshedji, all 6 ft 4, in an imperious, slightly angry voice said "Jahangir, how old are you?"

Jahangir, looked at us again, sheepishly said, 82

Jamshedji, aged 92, shot back at him "With one leg in the grave, what are you commiserating about your future?"

Nariman recounts that Jamshedji was a person who believed that after 80 a lawyer should hang up his boots.

Jamshedji, however, would still meticulously came to the chamber but made no appearances, after 80.

Nariman: This was his story the last time we met.

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Senior Advocate Vikas Singh recalls how he once when to brief Sorabji.

Sorabji, he recounted, said, "But I have to be convinced, if I am not convinced I am not going to argue."

@vikassinghSrAdv

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Singh: This was the stature of the man...

Singh adds that he learnt, from this experience, the principle, "Before you start arguing, you have to be convinced yourself."

@vikassinghSrAdv

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Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal: You've given us 3 minutes to encapsulate the life of a man who cannot be captured in 3 minutes

@KapilSibal

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Sibal: If you look at the Constitutional history of India, brick by brick, you would find the imprint in every brick of Soli Sorabjee.

@KapilSibal

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Sibal: We know about his passion for human rights, free speech, liberty... he never wavered in that passion, no matter which govt ... His contributions to the law are phenomenal.. he changed the whole concept of Article 14, 19, 21 in Menaka Gandhi...

@KapilSibal

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Sibal: He was a man of many parts. The freedom that jazz musicians had is the kind of freedom he wanted.

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Senior Advocate Harish Salve: Soli the lawyer is well known, not so well known is Soli the father, Soli the friend, Soli the jazz aficionado...

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Salve recounts that when he went to join Sorabjee's chamber, he said to Salve in Marathi "I will take the oil out of you."

Salve: I said I have a lot of oil in me, please feel free to do that

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Salve: ... grudges were something alien to him. And if you were a friend who was fond of jazz, then you have a special place in his heart...He was my strength ...

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Senior Advocate Iqbal Chagla: He loved the law. But it is not that he loved the law to the exclusion of everything else... his love of literature, his love of poetry, that was remarkable...

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Chagla: It was not western classical music that he loved, it was Jaz. The improvisation, which was the soul of jazz, that moved him.

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Chagla: Soli never talked of secularism. He just practiced secularism. There was no question of religion, race... nothing of that.

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Chagla: I don't think Soli would want us to mourn at all. He would have said at 90, you have had a full life.. let's open a malt and listen to the full album, that is what he would want.

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Justice Mukul Mudgal recounts: He had a great sense of humor and was a terrific mimic. He was gourmet, he loved to give dinners.. above all, he was a humane person. He loved life and lived life...

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Solicitor General Tushar Mehta: His life needs to be celebrated ... As a human being, Soli had a very rare sense of humor and towering personality which enabled him to use that sense of humor freely and at times fearlessly...

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Mehta recounts that there was a case where Sorabjee told Mehta, a young lawyer then, that "Judges may say it is for the plaintiff to prove his case.. we cannot depend on lacuna of defendants case". It is a fundamental qn, would it be necessary to find out judgments? Mehta asked..

He said, keep it ready, Mehta goes on the recall.

Mehta: As (Soli) predicted, one of the judges asked, 'as a defendant you have not proved anything... '

Mehta: Soli's reaction was - "Now look! This young boy told me in a conference that this was a very fundamental question of law which even a law student would not ask ... now I will give you judgments."

The Judges also laughed.

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Mehta: He was a man who always carried a very healthy smile on his face, which was contagious. .. Whenever I met him, I found myself enriched, encouraged, and inspired. .. His mere presence, words, his mere routine talk was enough to inspire

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Mehta: Friends, such a human being comes rarely. Let us not mourn his death, because he lived his life on his own terms and fully... Soli never dies, soli will always remain in our memory, anecdotes, in several judgments, and will always be remembered fondly.

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Senior Adv Darius Khambata: The moment he felt the judge was going in a particular direction, he would reorient his arguments.. to make a compelling argument in every case, it was a treat to watch him...

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Khambata: He had a spine and he showed that during the Emergency...

He never deviated from his credo that respect for Constitutional democracy was the true hallmark of a democracy, Khambata adds.

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Former Vice-Chancellor of NLSIU, Prof Venkata Rao pays tribute.

Murli Bhandare speaks next: I have lost one of my longest and oldest friends. We were together in the law college.

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Bhandare: We had one common passion, that is the common cause of justice. Soli was the champion of free speech. He appeared in leading cases which protected and promoted the right of speech and expression...

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Bhandare: He also was very fond of music and he started a big jazz festival in Delhi, and I never missed the program and the delight of that music.

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Bhandare: Words are not enough to say what I want to say about Soli ... Many battles he fought and won for justice ...

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Soli Sorabjee's daughter Zia Mody speaks, notes that enough has been said about his acumen: He was an absolute foodie...

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Zia Mody recounts how she noticed he father looking upset during a food festival.

On being asked what the problem is, Sorabji responded: "See it's fabulous food, but I left my dentures at the hotel!

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Mody: These are all little things about papa that we remembered and celebrate..

Mody recalls how #SoliSorabjee always took pride in his juniors and how he was always happy they charted out their own paths and flourished.

When asked, 'who is the junior you are proudest of?', It was always Harish, Mody adds.

After Arun Jaitely (another junior) passed, Sorabjee could not talk about him without breaking down, Mody recalls.

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Zia Mody recalls Soli Sorabjee as advicing her:

"Don't worry about clients darling, remember all clients are necessary evils. You are an officer of the court, don't forget that ... "

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Mody recalls further that #SoliSorabjee explained that it is not just the trust of the Judge that is lost when a lawyer fails as an officer of the court.

You lose the trust of the court "because they all have lunch and talk at the lunch table", Mody recalls Sorabjee's advice

"So don't worry about your clients, worry about your reputation:" Mody recalls #SoliSorabjee 's advice

As to when to recognize if there is a conflict, Mody recalls Sorabjee as having said,

"If it doesn't feel right, it is a conflict check. Go with your instincts."

Dr Manoj Kumar, Vice-President of SILF: The likes of Soli never die.. Soli is very much alive in our hearts. Long live Soli

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Avinash Rana: Everybody has talked about Soli, how great a lawyer he was... Soli and I were together in a number of cases in the High Court and Supreme Court...

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Rana: He was a great leader and a great friend...With his demise, a part of me has died. I am 93 years old, and I never thought Soli would go before me.

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A video of perhaps the last recorded interview, from February 2021, with #SoliSorabjee is shared.

The interview can be watched on YouTube:

Dr Ashok Sharma, President of Federation of the Indian In-House Lawyers' Association speaks: My relationship with Mr Sorabjee is from the other side, what Ms Zia Mody said was "necessary evil of clients"... It was always a pleasure to brief Mr Sorabjee

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He recalls how a PIL dismissed after Sorabji pointed out the petitioner's default.

Sharma: In his gentle, suave manner, he said (to Court) ... I am all for Public Interest Litigation, but in this PIL, I just want to point out one small fact that petitioner itself is a defaulter

Sharma recounts: the Court asked, "Is it true?"...
reluctantly, the petitioner said yes. At that point, the PIL got dismissed. This was the brilliant advocacy on the part of Mr Sorabjee... One small fact he picked up...

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Sharma: On the way out, he said "Ashok, I will charge double because it got over in one hearing." I said, "By all means do."

Sharma: But I never got that bill... he was so great man that he never borther about the money.

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Lalit Bhasin renders final remarks: It is not a condolence meeting, but a remembrance meeting.. we will institutionalize this in the memory of a great man, that is Soli Sorabjee.

- Event concludes -

#SoliSorabjee

A rare sense of humour, foodie, Jazz aficionado, part of Constitution’s evolution: Tributes pour in for late jurist, Soli Sorabjee [LIVE UPDATES]

#SoliSorabjee

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