KOCHI: The first ever authorized biography of Soli Sorabjee, one of the leading legal wizards of modern times , who played a prominent role in many Constitutional issues in post-independence has hit book shelves across India. “Soli Sorabjee: Life and Times” authored by Abhinav Chandrachud, takes readers through the most tumultuous period of India marked by many communal riots, Ram Janmabhmi Temple issue and Constitutionals crisis.
Sorabjee, who was keeping good health, was claimed by the pandemic Covid-19 on April 30, 2021. The biography has been released on April 30, the first anniversary of Sorabjee. Besides being a widely respected lawyer, Sorabjee was a western classical musician of good standing.
Soli Sorabjee, a name synonymous with Indian judicial system, holds many distinctions which may not have many parallels in the country’s history. A contemporary of the legendary Nani Palkhivala, Sorabjee was highly critical of the Hindutva forces when they demolished the structure by name Babri Masjid. But that does not prevent Atal Bihari Vajpayee from appointing him as the Attorney General of India when the BJP formed a government at the Centre for the first time in 1998.
At the age of 47, Sorabjee appeared in the supreme Court to defend the Morarji Desai Government’s decision to dissolve the Congress-led legislatures in the country. The arguments put forward by Sorabjee occupies a prominent position in the annals of Indian judicial history. Chandrachud chronicles how Sorabjee who was an admirer of Jawaharlal Nehru had criticised the BJP ‘for being obsessed with demolishing mosques' had advised them to replace 'Hindutva' with 'Bharatva' or 'Indianness', was chosen by Prime Minister Vajpayee to represent the government in the Supreme Court in many cases including the Ayodhya case.
The authorised biography recounts how a lawyer with a humdrum customs and excise law practice, whose grandfather sold horse-drawn carriages in Bombay, became a U.N. human rights rapporteur, and repeatedly defend the fundamental right to free speech and expression in the Supreme Court of India.
Though Sorabjee had authored books and essays on various topics, he chose to stay away from penning his memoirs which has been brought to a book form by Chandrachud, himself a young lawyer and grandson of former chief justice of India Y V Chandrachud and son of D Y Chandrachud, who is in line to become the chief justice of the country soon. (Agencies)
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