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Fali Nariman |
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10th January, 1929 |
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One of the living legends in the field of law is Fali Nariman. He is one of the senior most lawyers we have in India. His bio-data includes numerous positions of leadership in the legal community which he held, both within India and internationally. It is more than five decades that he has given his distinguished services as a lawyer to the bar and the people of this country.
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Born in Rangoon on 10th January, 1929, his early schooling took place there and in Simla. Fali graduated from St. Xavier's college, Bombay and pursued his law degree from the Government Law College, Bombay in 1950. He earned first standing in the Advocate's Examination and was awarded the Kinlock Forbes Gold Medal and Prize for Roman Law & Jurisprudence.
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Y. V Chandrachud and Nani Palkhiwala were professors at Government Law College and is reported that Mr. Palkhiwala once remarked "these voices (Fali Nariman, Soli Sorabji, Anil Diwan, and Ashok Desai) reached the top of the profession not because we taught them but, in the process of teaching them we learnt more than we taught." According to Ashok Desai, "we look upto him for his leadership because a fearless profession is as important as an independent Judiciary… I have found that he holds strong views but fully respects opposing views held by other colleagues.
His sense of humour is illustrative of his humility, as is clear from the following piece once related by him: there is an old teacher (I like to think he is a law teacher though I am not sure he is) who owns an old 1938 Morris car in New Delhi-as he drives along at 20 miles an hour one can read the sticker at the back of his car which says, 'this car is driven by a teacher. Please overtake me as all my students have.'
He has held numerous positions of leadership in the legal community. The list is enough to inspire the future crop of lawyers:
• Vice President and later President of the Bar Association of India
• President of the Law Association for Asia and the Pacific (LAWASIA)
• Founder and chairman of the Permanent Committee for Human Rights of the Law Association for Asia and the Pacific Member, Delhi Legal Aid & Advice Board.
• Member, Press Commission of India
• Chairman of the Executive Committee of the International Commission of Jurists
• Member and Honorary President of the International Council for Commercial Arbitration
• Co-Chair of the Human Rights Institute of the International Bar Association
• Leader of the Indian Delegation of Lawyers to the 59th International Law Association Conference at Belgrade and to the International Bar Association Conference in Berlin
• Member of the Advisory Board of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
• Member of the Governing Council Body of the National Law School University in Bangalore
• Member of the General Council of the West Bengal National University of Judicial Sciences in Calcutta
He was Additional Solicitor General of India when Emergency was declared. Following the dictates of his conscience he resigned from the post on June 26 1975 the day after Emergency was declared. He was the founder chairman of the LAWASIA standing committee on the human rights in 1979 and President of LAWASIA from 1985-'87. He has been honoured by a number of National and International Awards and positions.
One short piece written by him is produced hereunder which not only shows his great sense of humour and writing skill but his deep knowledge and ability to think on the legal issues.
"Article 141 of the Constitution says that the law declared by the Supreme Court is binding on all courts and authorities in the territory of India. Unwillingly Article 141 has now become the thief of Judicial Time. The Laws' proverbial delays are not because there are too many laws, but because there are just too many reported judgments and orders concerning them. Cashing in on Art 141 every single case in the Supreme Court ) and even in the High Courts-is dutifully printed and reported by a variety of competing reporting agencies who want their law reports to sell as widely as possible. The "judgement - factory" has become over - commercialized, and quite a large number of the 30 million cases now pending in various Courts in India can be attributed-at least in part-to this peculiar Indian malady: ‘case-law diarrhea’.”
He wrote various articles on democracy, Indian constitution, judiciary and various other related subjects. His ability as a lawyer is undisputed and unchallenged till date. The originality of his thinking is reflected in the fact that even at the final appellate stage in the Supreme Court he can come up with a completely new approach to the case. He turns a point around and discovers an angle missed by others. He can place it in a manner, which catches his opponents on the wrong foot.
In all he is the one which is a living example for the lawyers of today to look up to him for a ray of hope.
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