Book on Lalit Bhasin’s life released
NEW DELHI : A pictorial biography on senior lawyer and chairperson of the Society of Indian Law Firms (SILF), Lalit Bhasin, was released on Saturday by eminent jurist Fali S Nariman.
The coffee table book titled ‘Lalit Bhasin – A Lifetime Dedicated to Law’ was released at a function organised at Nariman’s residence in south Delhi. Bhasin, who has been at the forefront of promoting interests of law firms in India through SILF, which was founded in 2000, said that the book is dedicated to the legal profession and lawyers of the country.
Bhasin, 81, was born in Rawalpindi, which is now in Pakistan. His father TR Bhasin was a wellknown senior lawyer whose last assignment was as counsel for the Khosla Commission, constituted in 1970 to probe into the disappearance of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. Bhasin pursued law from Faculty of Law, Delhi University and started his law practice in 1962.
The book, published by Matrix Publishing Group, captures Bhasin’s life from his pre-Partition days as a child in Rawalpindi to his shift to Delhi and rise in Delhi legal circles.
“Life was not a bed of roses after Partition when we were uprooted from Rawalpindi. It was a period of struggle. What I have tried to convey in this book about me is that one can start from scratch and yet achieve one’s goals if one has the mission in mind and work towards it,” Bhasin told HT.
Bhasin said that Sanjay Sethi, who is the CEO of the Matrix Group, contacted him a couple of years ago, saying he wanted to bring out a coffee table book about Bhasin’s life as a lawyer. “He really prevailed upon me to bring out this book. Thereafter, I devoted a lot of time with him since we had to capture about 81 years of my life out of which 58 years were (in) the (legal) profession,” Bhasin said. “This is an excellent book and makes for a very interesting read,” Fali Nariman said at the launch.
Bhasin has previously served as chairperson of the Bar Council of Delhi and is also the current president of the Bar Association of India, which is a federation of various lawyers’ bodies.
“My mission has been to give back to the society and to help legal professionals, particularly the junior members of the bar who might not have libraries or resources. I also wanted to make Indian legal profession known throughout the world. We have been able to do that through the Bar Association of India and through Society of Indian Law Firms which have placed India on the world map of the legal profession. Now, Indian lawyers are considered as second to none. I am very happy to see India’s legal profession emerge as a force to reckon with,” Bhasin said.