<p>Soli Sorabjee was taken by Covid on Friday at the “ripe” old age of 91 but yet, not quite ready to go to the next world.</p>.<p>I met him recently celebrating his 91st birthday at one of his favourite haunts – India International Centre on the 9th of March 2021…just a few weeks ago. He was quieter but far from on-his-way-out of this world having maintained a close connection with reality, news and the law all his life.</p>.<p>I have known ‘Soli’ as we all affectionately called him, for over 30 years. He first came to Oxford where I was studying law in 1991 and demonstrated an uncanny desire to pick up special knowledge. We met at an old historic pub, the Eagle & Child, one we affectionately called ‘the Bird & the Babe’, while he was there on what he called a six-month sabbatical, a knowledge gleaning exercise.</p>.<p>When I came back to work with Mr J B Dadachanji, another towering legal figure, I was sent to brief Soli for a every difficult case. My experience, unlike that of many others, was that he was exceptionally gentle with young lawyers and readily forgave mistakes that he felt were unavoidable. He could sometimes thunder if one of us failed to read the brief, the law or to connect the factual dots, but it washed over us as a blessing for the many tests beyond his chambers.</p>.<p>Inside the courtroom, Soli also took on responsibility for our mistakes and always apologised charmingly to the Court if the brief or facts came undone. What happened outside and in the late evenings remains legally privileged! A stickler for detail, Mr Sorabjee would notice everything in the brief and around it, even the health of one of the briefing juniors.</p>.<p>Unlike many jurists, he took sides readily without considering political angles. In December 1992, he marched (with me along-side) protesting against the demolition of the Babri Masjid, he believed that was an assault on the law, yet he remained a stoic believer in positivism and hated mushy principles that could be moulded by different judges differently. He wrote against the widening of judicial discretion and had pointed out the dangers of the ‘basic structure doctrine’ which he wrote about extensively. </p>.<p>Soli enjoyed his books, travel and jazz music, remarking once that he never understood why people played golf when they could finish a book or hear several CDs in the time it took for a round of ‘that game’. He made one of the finest attorney generals and jurists of our lives fighting for the right side and for human rights.</p>.<p>Another casualty of the Covid scourge, Padma Vibhushan Soli Sorabjee’s loss even after six decades of his legal practice is a great loss to India. A man who would never rest in his quest for justice, we wish him all the best for his onward journey, and if there is life after death, God help the other side!</p>
<p>Soli Sorabjee was taken by Covid on Friday at the “ripe” old age of 91 but yet, not quite ready to go to the next world.</p>.<p>I met him recently celebrating his 91st birthday at one of his favourite haunts – India International Centre on the 9th of March 2021…just a few weeks ago. He was quieter but far from on-his-way-out of this world having maintained a close connection with reality, news and the law all his life.</p>.<p>I have known ‘Soli’ as we all affectionately called him, for over 30 years. He first came to Oxford where I was studying law in 1991 and demonstrated an uncanny desire to pick up special knowledge. We met at an old historic pub, the Eagle & Child, one we affectionately called ‘the Bird & the Babe’, while he was there on what he called a six-month sabbatical, a knowledge gleaning exercise.</p>.<p>When I came back to work with Mr J B Dadachanji, another towering legal figure, I was sent to brief Soli for a every difficult case. My experience, unlike that of many others, was that he was exceptionally gentle with young lawyers and readily forgave mistakes that he felt were unavoidable. He could sometimes thunder if one of us failed to read the brief, the law or to connect the factual dots, but it washed over us as a blessing for the many tests beyond his chambers.</p>.<p>Inside the courtroom, Soli also took on responsibility for our mistakes and always apologised charmingly to the Court if the brief or facts came undone. What happened outside and in the late evenings remains legally privileged! A stickler for detail, Mr Sorabjee would notice everything in the brief and around it, even the health of one of the briefing juniors.</p>.<p>Unlike many jurists, he took sides readily without considering political angles. In December 1992, he marched (with me along-side) protesting against the demolition of the Babri Masjid, he believed that was an assault on the law, yet he remained a stoic believer in positivism and hated mushy principles that could be moulded by different judges differently. He wrote against the widening of judicial discretion and had pointed out the dangers of the ‘basic structure doctrine’ which he wrote about extensively. </p>.<p>Soli enjoyed his books, travel and jazz music, remarking once that he never understood why people played golf when they could finish a book or hear several CDs in the time it took for a round of ‘that game’. He made one of the finest attorney generals and jurists of our lives fighting for the right side and for human rights.</p>.<p>Another casualty of the Covid scourge, Padma Vibhushan Soli Sorabjee’s loss even after six decades of his legal practice is a great loss to India. A man who would never rest in his quest for justice, we wish him all the best for his onward journey, and if there is life after death, God help the other side!</p>