Eminent constitutional jurist and veteran senior advocate of the Supreme Court Fali Sam Nariman passed away in New Delhi on Wednesday. He was 95. He was suffering from multiple ailments, including cardiac issues.
Sobriquet as Bhimsa Pitamah of lawyer community, Nariman had practised law for more than 70 years initially in the Bombay High Court and since 1972, in the Supreme Court. He had reportedly handled more than 13,565 cases during his tenure.
In December last year, Nariman had criticised the Supreme Court's verdict upholding the abrogation of Article 370 which had conferred special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.
“It (the verdict) is, in my view, an incorrect appreciation of the Constitution, which I didn't expect the court to do.”
Who is Fali Sam Nariman?
Fali Sam Nariman was born on 10 January 1929 in Rangoon (now Yangon) to a well-off Parsi business executive and his wife. The Nariman family later fled to India in the face of the Japanese invasion in 1942 when Fali was 12.
Nariman had a B.A., in Economics and History from St. Xavier's College, Mumbai, and a law degree (LL.B.) from the Government Law College, Mumbai in 1950, where he stood first in the exam. Nariman enrolled as an advocate of the Bombay High Court in November 1950, and was designated senior advocate in 1961.
In 1971, he was appointed as a Senior Advocate of the Supreme Court. He was appointed Additional Solicitor General of India in May 1972. He resigned from the post a day after the imposition of Emergency on June 26, 1975.
He was awarded the Padma Bhushan in January 1991 and the Padma Vibhushan in 2007. He also received the Gruber Prize for Justice in 2002. He was also nominated as a member of the Rajya Sabha in November 1999.
He was also an internationally recognised jurist on international arbitration.
Nariman got married to Bapsi F. Nariman in 1955, and the couple have two children, a son and a daughter. His son Rohinton Fali Nariman was a senior advocate and a judge of the Supreme Court. Rohinton had also held the post of the Solicitor General of India from 2011 to 2013.
His autobiography “Before Memory Fades” is a widely read book. He has also authored “The State of the Nation”, “India's Legal System: Can it be Saved?” and “God Save the Hon'ble Supreme Court”.
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