Adieu Soli Sorabjee, jurist, legal luminary, and jazz aficionado
{ 1930-1921 } OBITUARY
NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: Soli Sorabjee, 91, former attorney general of India, a staunch proponent of freedom of speech, and an eminent lawyer associated with a series of landmark judgments, died on Friday at a hospital in New Delhi.
Sorabjee famously joined jurist Nani Palkhivala and veteran lawyer Fali S Nariman to fight the 1973 Keshavanand Bharti case in the Supreme Court that eventually led to the legal doctrine of “basic structure” of the Constitution. It was the only time a bench of 13 judges, the full strength of the apex court at that time, sat to decide a case. It was the longest heard case before the court -69 days from October 31, 1972, to March 23, 1973. The Bharati judgement, by a majority of 7:6, said amendments should not alter the “basic structure” of the Constitution, and has become the bedrock of Indian constitutional law.
Sorabjee was the petitioner’s lawyer in the landmark SR Bommai case, which resulted in the Supreme Court’s 1994 verdict that held the power of the President to dismiss a state government is not absolute and subject to judicial review. He was also involved in the Prakash Singh case in which the top court directed the Centre to appoint the National Police Commission and paved the way for significant police reforms.
In the 1984 anti-Sikh riots cases, Sorabjee worked with Citizen’s Justice Committee and took up cases pro bono for the victims. He also led the fight in the Maneka Gandhi case in
which the Supreme Court expanded the meaning of personal liberty to mean life with dignity, and ruled against any arbitrary action not only of the executive but also through any legislative act. In 1997, Sorabjee was appointed as a special rapporteur on human rights in Nigeria. He later became a member of the United Nations Sub Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, and went on chair the commission from 1998 to 2004. Since 1998, he was a member of the United Nations Sub Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities. Sorabjee also served from 2000 to 2006 as a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration at the Hague. He was decorated with India’s second highest civilian honour, the Padma Vibhushan, in 2002.