Telugu States' CMs Mourn Famed Jurist's Death

Former Attorney General of India and Padma Vibhushan awardee Soli Sorabjee succumbed to Covid-19 this morning. He was undergoing treatment at a private hospital in New Delhi.

The 91-year-old, who was counted among the finest legal minds of the country, was born in Mumbai in 1930. After pursuing his legal studies at the famed Government Law College in Mumbai, he began to practice in 1953 at the Bombay High Court. In 1971, he was appointed as a senior counsel by the Supreme Court of India.

The jurist fought many monumental cases, and always fought for the protection of the right to free speech, for the freedom of the press, the limiting of the State's use of police power, and for the creation of a democracy safeguarded from the despotic tendencies of any Prime Ministers or Governors.

Unsurprisingly, Sorabjee was also a passionate defender of human rights and media freedoms throughout the period of the Emergency imposed by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1975.

The jurist was appointed to the post of Attorney General in 1989 and then again from 1998 to 2004. He was also picked by the UN to serve as a UN Special Rapporteur for Nigeria in 1997, and became part of the UN Sub-Commission on Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, serving as the body's chairman between 1998 to 2004.

He was part of the UN Sub-Commission on the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities and of the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague from 2000 to 2006 as well. He was honored with the Padma Vibhushan in 2002 for his work to defend human rights.

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, Andhra Pradesh CM Y S Jaganmohan Reddy and Governor Biswa Bhusan Harichandan mourned the passing of the legal luminary and conveyed their condolences to the bereaved family.

Other eminent personalities including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Justice of India N V Ramanna, and Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi also expressed their sorrow at Sorabjee's passing.