He received in 2002 Padma Vibhushan, second highest Civilian Award for his defense of the freedom of expression and the protection of rights.
Soli Jehajir Sorabjee was born on March 9, 1930 to a Parsi family in Bombay. He studied in St Xavier’s college, Mumbai, and government Law College, Mumbai and was admitted the Bar in 1953. At government Law College, he was awarded a gold medal. In 1973 Soliji was designated senior Advocate of the Bombay High Court. He served again on April 7, 1998, a post he held until 2004. During Emergency Sorabjee provided legal services to political prisoners. He later worked on the Citizens Justice Committee which represented the 1984 anti Sikh riot victims.
Sorabjee was involved in several precedent-setting cases concerning the interpretation of the Constitution. Sorabjee and Fali Nariman assisted the petition’s Counsel in landmark Kesvanand Bharti vs state of Kerala case, 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 Menaka Gandhi vs government of India case.
He was also involved in S R Bommai vs Union of India, which imposed restrictions on President’s rule, and T R Coetho vs state of Tamil which held that the laws passed under 9th schedule of the Constitution are not exempted from judicial review. He appeared in the case B P Singhal vs Union of India in which the Supreme Court held that governors could not be dismissed without due cause. He aided the petitioner in Shreva Singhal vs Union of India, which targeted restrictions on online speech in the Information Technology act 2000.
Sorabjee was the chairman of Transparency International and Convenor of the Minority Rights Group. He served as Special Rapporteur to Nigeria for the United Nations Human Rights Commission in 1997, and as a member of the United Nations Sub-commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities from 1998 onwards. Sorabjee served as member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration at the Hague from 2000 to 2006. He was Vice-President of Commonwealth of Lawyers association and member of the Arms Control and disarmament Law of the international Law Association.
Sorabjee’s friends always remember him saying “Soli will always be remembered as a steadfast champion of human rights who would not hesitate to tell governments they are wrong. But he never did it hurtfully. Yet, his politeness revealed a steely resolve”. (IPA Service)