If you look at the Constitutional history of India, brick by brick, you would find the imprint in every brick of Soli Sorabjee: Mr Kapil Sibal

If you look at the Constitutional history of India, brick by brick, you would find the imprint in every brick of Soli Sorabjee

Senior Advocate Mr Kapil Sibal started the address by telling the viewers how much he admired Mr Sorabjee and learnt a lot from him when he began his practice back in the day. 

Pointing to Soli’s passion for human rights, free speech, liberty, Mr Sibal briefly talked about Mr Sorabjee’s contribution to law. He hailed him for changing and redefining the whole concept of Article 14, 19, 21 in the 1978 Menaka Gandhi case.

If you look at the Constitutional history of India, brick by brick, you would find the imprint in every brick of Soli Sorabjee, he said. 

Soli was a person of great metal: Mr Sibal

Mr Sibal shared a personal anecdote to highlight Mr Sorabjee’s impeccable character. He would stand by people and look after them, Mr Sibal said.

The incident dates back to the time when Mr Sorabjee was an Attorney General between 1989 to 1990. This was a time when Mr Sibal's appointment as Additional Solicitor General got through.  However, Congress was not in power. Therefore the then deputy Minister, Mr Devi Lal Prasad wanted Mr Sibal to resign from his post. Mr Devi Lal had in fact made a public statement declaring that if Mr Sibal did not resign, he would resign.  This was not all. Mr Sorabjee even got a phone call from the then law minister of India asking him to tell Mr Sibal to resign.  However, Mr Sorabjee stood by Mr Sibal and made it clear to him that he will not resign under any circumstances.

Soli told Mr Sibal that he will show the resignation letter to Mr Devi Lal Prasad to satisfy his ego but he will not hand the resignation letter to the government.

Soli was a man of many parts. The freedom that jazz musicians had is the kind of freedom he wanted: Kapil Sibal

Talking about the diversity of his interests Mr Sibal said, Soli was a man of many parts. The freedom that jazz musicians have is the kind of freedom that he wanted in his life. Soli loved literature and poetry. 

Mr Sibal complimented Soli’s children for doing him proud and stated that his daughter Zia, has shown the way to women lawyers in this country.

Before concluding his heartfelt tribute, Mr Sibal said that Soli as a human being had enormous empathy. He will be remembered for times to come for his contributions to the law, his love for life and poetry.

Watch the full virtual meet on the link below:

https://bit.ly/3uxb6PX

Note: The automatic transcription has been lightly edited for a better reading experience. Some names and parts of the transcription may carry inadvertent errors that we are in the process of editing. Thank you for your understanding.