Once you choose law as a profession, you don’t retire till you die: Soli Sorabjee

The other such case is, Maneka Gandhi versus Union of India, where the Apex Court had clarified that the right of personal liberty granted by Article 21 of the Constitution is indeed sacrosanct and observed in its ruling that, “If democracy means the government of the people by the people, it is obvious that every citizen must be entitled to participate in the democratic process and in order to enable him to intelligently exercise his right of making a choice, free and general discussion of public matters is absolutely essential.”

Soli Jehangir Sorabjee, former attorney general and legal luminary who passed away on Friday morning was one of the key architects in the two landmark rulings that even now are the guiding light of India’s democracy. In the Kesavananda Bharati case, along with Fali Nariman, he assisted Nanabhoy Palkhivala. While in the Maneka Gandhi case, he was representing the government as Additional Solicitor General.

In the Maneka Gandhi case, the court had particularly mentioned that “Attorney General (and the Additional Solicitor General who appeared with him), with characteristic and commendable grace and perceptive and progressive realism, agreed to the happy resolution of the present dispute in the manner set out in my learned brother’s judgment.”

He was 91 and survived by a wife, a daughter, Zia Mody, an eminent lawyer and co-founder of law firm AZB & Partners and two sons.

A Padma Vibhushan recipient, Sorabjee was also a Jazz aficionado and used to play the clarinet as well.

A human rights champion of international acclaim, Sorabjee had been a votary of protection of fundamental rights of the last man standing in the socio-economic hierarchy. Also, he had taken up pro-bono cases from the Sikh community post-1984 anti-Sikh riots in Delhi.

He was appointed as a special reporter for Nigeria by the United Nation for studying the condition of the country in 1977. Subsequently, he became a member of the UN Sub Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and between 1998 to 2004, he became chairman of the commission as well.

Sorabjee’s contributions in the field of constitutional law and winning India victory in an international court of justice against Pakistan in the Atlantique downing case of 1999.

An alumnus of the Government Law College, Mumbai, he was admitted to the bar in 1953. In the year 1971, Sorabjee was designated as the Senior Advocate in the Supreme Court. He served as the solicitor general for India from 1977 to 1980, as the Additional Solicitor General for India from 1989 to 1990, and as the Attorney-General for India from 1998 to 2004.

Recently, Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman had released a festschrift in honour of Sorabjee at India International Centre (IIC).

In the year 1984, when the gas tragedy took place in Bhopal in the plant of Union Carbide, he refused to represent the company in the case and had said that he would rather choose to represent victims.

“I often tell young lawyers, if you think you will come here (in profession) and make money, then you are in the wrong place, go and do import-export or become builder, that is more lucrative monetarily,” said Sorabjee to this writer once, during his Mumbai visit. “Lawyers don’t retire, they practice till they die. My only advice to young lawyers is to choose a stream of practice or even profession which interests you to continue till that time, don’t think of just making money out of it.”