Soli Jehangir Sorabjee, AM (9 March 193030 April 2021) was an Indian jurist who served as Attorney-General for India from 1989 to 1990, and again from 1998 to 2004. In 2002, he received the

Padma Vibhushan The Padma Vibhushan ("Lotus Decoration") is the second-highest Indian honours system, civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is given for "exceptional and distinguished service" ...

for his defence of the freedom of expression and the protection of human rights.

Early life

Soli Jehangir Sorabjee was born on 9 March 1930 in

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

to a Bahai family. He studied at Bharda New High School, Mumbai and

St. Xavier's College, Mumbai St. Xavier's College is a private, Catholic, autonomous higher education institution run by the Bombay Province of the Society of Jesus in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It was founded by the Jesuits on January 2, 1869. The college is aff ...

and

Government Law College, Mumbai The Government Law College, Mumbai, (GLC Mumbai), founded in 1855, is the one of the oldest law schools in Asia. The college, affiliated to the University of Mumbai, is run by the Government of Maharashtra. Bal Gangadhar Tilak ,Pratibha Pa ...

, and was admitted to the bar in 1953. At Government Law College, he was awarded the Kinloch Forbes Gold Medal in

Roman Law Roman law is the law, legal system of ancient Rome, including the legal developments spanning over a thousand years of jurisprudence, from the Twelve Tables (c. 449 BC), to the ''Corpus Juris Civilis'' (AD 529) ordered by Eastern Roman emperor J ...

and

Jurisprudence Jurisprudence, or legal theory, is the theoretical study of the propriety of law. Scholars of jurisprudence seek to explain the nature of law in its most general form and they also seek to achieve a deeper understanding of legal reasoning a ...

(1952).

Career

In 1971, Sorabjee was designated a senior advocate of the

Bombay High Court The High Court of Bombay is the high court of the states of Maharashtra and Goa in India, and the union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. It is seated primarily at Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay), and is one of the ol ...

. He served as Solicitor-General of India from 1977 to 1980. He was appointed Attorney-General for India on 9 December 1989 up to 2 December 1990, and then again on 7 April 1998, a post he held until 2004. In March 2002, Soli Sorabjee received the

for his defence of the freedom of expression and the protection of human rights. During The Emergency (1975-1977), Sorabjee provided legal services to political prisoners. He later worked on the Citizen's Justice Committee which represented the

1984 anti-Sikh riots The 1984 Anti-Sikh Riots, also known as the 1984 Sikh Massacre, was a series of organised pogroms against Sikhs in India following the assassination of Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards. Government estimates project that about 2,800 Sikhs ...

victims ''

pro bono ( en, 'for the public good'), usually shortened to , is a Latin phrase for professional work undertaken voluntarily and without payment. In the United States, the term typically refers to provision of legal services by legal professionals for pe ...

''. In March 2006 he was appointed an honorary member of the

Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Gove ...

(AM), "for service to Australia-India bilateral legal relations". Sorabjee was involved in several precedent-setting cases concerning the interpretation of the

Constitution of India The Constitution of India (IAST: ) is the supreme law of India. The document lays down the framework that demarcates fundamental political code, structure, procedures, powers, and duties of government institutions and sets out fundamental ri ...

. Sorabjee and Fali Nariman assisted the petitioner's counsel in '' Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala'', which restricted Parliament from altering the "basic structure" of the Constitution. As Solicitor-General, he was a member of the government's legal delegation in '' Maneka Gandhi v Union of India'', which held that Article 21 of the Constitution promulgated the right of personal liberty. He was also involved in ''

S. R. Bommai v. Union of India ''S. R. Bommai v. Union of India'' ( 9942 SCR 644 : AIR 1994 SC 1918 : (1994)3 SCC1) is a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of India, where the Court discussed at length provisions of Article 356 of the Constitution of India and related i ...

'', which imposed restrictions on

President's rule In India, President's rule is the suspension of state government and imposition of direct Union government rule in a state. Under Article 356 of the Constitution of India, if a state government is unable to function according to Constitutional ...

, and '' I.R. Coelho v. State of Tamil Nadu'', which held that laws passed under the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution are not exempt from

judicial review Judicial review is a process under which executive, legislative and administrative actions are subject to review by the judiciary. A court with authority for judicial review may invalidate laws, acts and governmental actions that are incompat ...

. He appeared in the case of '' B.P. Singhal v. Union of India'', in which the Supreme Court held that state governors could not be dismissed without due cause. He aided the petitioner in ''

Shreya Singhal v. Union of India ''Shreya Singhal v. Union of India'' is a judgement by a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court of India in 2015, on the issue of online speech and intermediary liability in India. The Supreme Court struck down Section 66A of the Information Tech ...

'', which targeted restrictions on online speech in the

Information Technology Act, 2000 The Information Technology Act, 2000 (also known as ITA-2000, or the IT Act) is an Act of the Indian Parliament (No 21 of 2000) notified on 17 October 2000. It is the primary law in India dealing with cybercrime and electronic commerce. Secon ...

Offices

He was the chairman of

Transparency International Transparency International e.V. (TI) is a German registered association founded in 1993 by former employees of the World Bank. Based in Berlin, its nonprofit and non-governmental purpose is to take action to combat global corruption with civil ...

and Convenor of the

Minority Rights Group Minority Rights Group International (MRG) is an international human rights organisation founded with the objective of working to secure rights for ethnic, national, religious, linguistic minorities and indigenous peoples around the world. Their ...

. He served as Special Rapporteur to

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

for the

United Nations Human Rights Commission The United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) was a functional commission within the overall framework of the United Nations from 1946 until it was replaced by the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2006. It was a subsidiary body of t ...

in 1997, and as a member of the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

Subcommission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities from 1998 onwards. Sorabjee served as member of the

Permanent Court of Arbitration The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) is a non-UN intergovernmental organization located in The Hague, Netherlands. Unlike a judicial court in the traditional sense, the PCA provides services of arbitral tribunal to resolve disputes that arise ...

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...

from 2000 to 2006. Soli J. Sorabjee was vice-president of the

Commonwealth Lawyers Association The Commonwealth Lawyers Association (CLA) is an organisation of lawyers, law societies and bar associations across the Commonwealth of Nations. The association hosts a conference in a member nation of the commonwealth biennially. History ...

and a member of the Committee on Arms Control and Disarmament Law of the

International Law Association The International Law Association (ILA) is a non-profit organisation based in Great Britain that — according to its constitution — promotes "the study, clarification and development of international law" and "the furtherance of international ...

Personal life

Sorabjee was a close friend and colleague of

Nanabhoy Palkhivala Nani Ardeshir Palkhivala (16 January 1920 – 11 December 2002) was an Indian jurist and liberal economist. Early years Nani Palkhivala was born in 1920 in Bombay in what was then the Bombay Presidency. His family name derives from the pro ...

. Sorabjee's daughter, Zia Mody, is also a lawyer and partner at AZB & Partners. Zia Mody is the author of the book ''10 Judgements that Changed India''. Sorabjee is also survived by three sons—Jehangir, a doctor, Hormazd Sorabjee, editor of the Autocar India magazine and Jamshed.—and seven grandchildren named Niki, Ardeshir, Raian, Maya, Anjali, Aarti, and Aditi. Sorabjee was the first president of the

Jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

India Association. He played the

clarinet The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches ...

; his favourite artists included

Benny Goodman Benjamin David Goodman (May 30, 1909 – June 13, 1986) was an American clarinetist and bandleader known as the "King of Swing". From 1936 until the mid-1940s, Goodman led one of the most popular swing big bands in the United States. His co ...

and

Dizzy Gillespie John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie (; October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, educator and singer. He was a trumpet virtuoso and improviser, building on the virtuosic style of Roy Eldridge but addi ...

. He died of

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, on 30 April 2021 in a private hospital in

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

where he was undergoing treatment.

Publications

Books

* * * *

Essays and monographs

* * *

Articles

* * * He also wrote columns for the

Indian Express ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932. It is published in Mumbai by the Indian Express Group. In 1999, eight years after the group's founder Ramnath Goenka's death in 1991, the group was split betw ...

Awards

* Kinloch Forbes Gold Medal in Roman Law and Jurisprudence, 1952 *

, March 2002 * Justice K. S. Hegde Foundation Award, April 2006

References

External links

Articles written by Sorabjee for ''The Indian Express''

Sorabjee on racism

Sorabjee on independent journalism
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sorabjee, Soli 1930 births 2021 deaths Attorneys General of India Solicitors General of India Recipients of the Padma Vibhushan in public affairs Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in India Honorary Members of the Order of Australia Indian judges of international courts and tribunals Indian officials of the United Nations Members of the Permanent Court of Arbitration Members of the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights Parsi people from Mumbai Scholars from Mumbai Senior Advocates in India St. Xavier's College, Mumbai alumni 20th-century Indian lawyers