Soli Sorabjee, senior advocate & former Attorney General, passes away aged 91 in Delhi

Veteran lawyer and former Attorney-General of India Soli Sorabjee passed away on Friday morning aged 91. He was admitted to a private hospital in Delhi after contracting COVID-19.

Sorabjee, a Padma Vibhushan recipient, began his legal practice in 1953 at the Bombay High Court and was designated senior advocate by the Supreme Court in 1971. He became the Attorney General of India first from 1989-90 and then from 1998-2004.

A renowned human rights lawyer, Soli Sorabjee was appointed by the United Nations as a Special Rapporteur for Nigeria in 1997 to report on the human rights situation in that country. He went on to become a member and chairman of the UN Sub Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights from 1998 to 2004.

The veteran jurist was a strong advocate of freedom of speech and had defended freedom of the press in many landmark cases in the Supreme Court. Sorabjee also played an instrumental role in revoking censorship orders and bans on publications. His publications on this subject include The Laws of Press Censorship in India (1976); The Emergency, Censorship and the Press in India, 1975-77.

In March 2002, Sorabjee was honoured with the second-highest civilian award in India for his defence of freedom of speech and the protection of human rights.

Notably, Soli Sorabjee had termed the Centre's decision to scrap Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir as unwise. “I don’t think there is anything revolutionary here. It’s a political decision, even though it is not a wise decision,” he had said.