On March 9, Soli J. Sorabjee celebrated his 91st birthday. The venue of the event organised by Sorabjee's family was the India International Centre, a favourite haunt of his. It was an occasion to go down the memory lane as a Festschrift was released in his honour, and family and friends recollected anecdotes from his sparkling career and beyond.
The indefatigable Sorabjee, unwilling to let the proceedings of the evening be seen as a 'lifetime achievement award' moment, stated at the end of a discussion on the book containing his articles and speeches that his age could well be pegged at 65 years.
Frail of body and speech slurred—his body weakened by the ravages of time—the legal luminary was determined to remain involved with his many passions, law being only one of many. However, the indiscriminate and cruel sweep of COVID-19 has claimed the doyen of the legal fraternity, cutting short a journey that he had not tired of.
Sorabjee's journey at the Bar had begun in 1953, when he started his practice at the Bombay High Court. He was a junior in the chambers of Sir Jamshedji Kanga, and it was there that his association with the legal giant Nani Palkhivala, who was then also a junior under Kanga, had begun. Sorabjee is said to have imbibed a liking for brief and crisp pre-hearing chamber briefings from Palkhivala.
Sorabjee was later associated with Palkhivala in the legendary Keshavananda Bharti case, in which the Supreme Court laid down the doctrine of the inviolability of the basic structure of the Constitution. As per the doctrine, the court could test laws passed by Parliament upon the touchstone of whether they altered the basic structure of the Constitution.
The S.R. Bommai case is also among the landmark cases in which Sorabjee had argued. In the case, the Supreme Court had, in its judgment passed in 1994, stated that the power of the President to dismiss a state government is not absolute, and it could be taken up for judicial review on certain grounds.
He was also a lawyer in the Maneka Gandhi case of 1978, where the Supreme Court reinterpreted Article 21 of the Constitution and expanded the meaning of personal liberty to mean life with dignity.
Sorabjee had throughout his legal career shone as a bright star. In 1971, at the age of 41, he became one of the youngest lawyers to be designated as a senior advocate by the Supreme Court. He was Solicitor General of India from 1977 to 1980. He had two stints as the Attorney General of India – 1989-90 and 1998-2004. He was awarded Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian award in the country, in 2002.
Irrespective of his individual political leanings, Sorabjee remained a staunch defender of freedom of speech and freedom of press. He often said that the two indices of a genuine democracy are a free and independent press and an independent judiciary. He was a vocal critic of the manner in which Parliament and the state legislatures are known more for disruptions than meaningful debate.
At the same time, Sorabjee was critical of the manner in which judges are appointed through the collegium system. He was of the view that while judges are the best persons to be involved in appointments to the higher courts, the judiciary cannot be an exclusive body in the matter.
A multifaceted personality, Sorabjee would tell his juniors not to remain limited to law, but expand their interests in other areas such as literature and the arts and take a stand on socio-political issues and matters concerning human rights.
True to his advice to his juniors, Sorabjee was passionate about Jazz. He was one of the prime architects of the annual Jazz Yatra, a week-long music festival that was held from 1978 to 2003. He could play the clarinet, but had to give it up in later years due to breathing issues. The eminent lawyer believed that there was a connection between his love for Jazz and his legal practice, and he felt that the musical interest had an influence on how he functioned as a lawyer.
Sorabjee was also deeply interested in literature, and his favourite room in his house was his library. His favourite was Shakespeare, and he loved reciting portions from the Bard's works. He would get deeply distressed at the sight of books getting ill-treated in the form of dog-earing or highlighting.
A lesser known facet of Sorabjee was that he was an excellent mimic. He would have mimicry sessions with close friends in which he would be quite unsparing as he imitated personalities, especially from the legal and political fields.
While his contribution to law is unmatched, Sorabjee truly was a man of many talents.
