Bar Association of India pays tribute to Soli Sorabjee

On May 6, 2021, The Bar Association of India held a virtual condolence meeting to pay tribute to former Attornery General, Soli J Sorabjee..The meeting was attended by many top lawyers of the country who personally knew Sorabjee, and his family members including his wife Zena Sorabjee, daughter Zia Mody, sons Jahangir and Hormazd Sorabjee, and other family and friends..The meet began with condolences by the Attorney General for India, KK Venugopal followed by Prashant Kumar, President of the Bar Association of India. .Attorney General Venugopal recalled “He was a personal friend of mine ... Soli was a good friend and many splendid being....He was an international personality.”.The AG then quoted from his eminent friends abroad. .Dorothy Nelson Judge of US Supreme Court of Appeals said, “I was so Impressed by his brilliant mind but even more so by his warm and friendly hospitality.".Anthony Lester, Lord Lester of Barone Hill, said, “Soli was renowned for his life long pursuit of justice and pursuit of human rights in India and beyond. He was an independent ... he was an independent and impartial Attorney General and he is a powerful and principle advocate.”.Many of Sorabjee's friends/colleagues regaled the gathering with interesting anecdotes and little-known facets of Soli Sorabjee..Zia Mody also spoke about her father and recalled, “.. I remember Daddy telling me, every time I would get nervous about a matter. He would say, you say all your Bhai prayer but your main prayer every night, you have to pray ... that your senior tomorrow falls sick and you argue the matter.”.She further recounted,."In the early days, when papa was seeing that I was not getting many briefs, and I was getting agitated and irritated. He would say why are you wasting your time in the chamber. Go and sit in every court, know thy judge, does he like employers, is he interested in landlords or does he favour tenants. Get to know your judge, if you don’t know your judge, you can’t argue a case properly.".The meeting concluded by playing one of the last known interviews of Sorabjee to an online news channel www.theprobe.in , wherein he said that, “If you are not independent, your soul is sold, and if you sell your soul, you sell the soul of democracy in India."He further said “without independent journalism, democracy is zero.”.BAI has also Instituted the Shri Soli J Sorabjee Memorial Lecture on Freedom of Speech and Expression..The whole program and the experiences of his friends can be viewed on the YouTube channel of the Bar Association of India.