India's top 10 lawyers
Drawing up any kind of list is fraught with danger, especially a list of the country's ten top lawyers! We will almost certainly be accused of acts of omission and commission. On our part, we've tried to be as thorough as possible — asking senior and junior lawyers and retired judges for their opinion; examining the track record of short-listed candidates; comparing their knowledge, acumen and court craft with that of others. How good are they at retrieving seemingly impossible situations? Can they persuade a judge to appreciate a point of view that is diametrically opposite his initial understanding? What role have they played in the seminal cases of our time? How have they shaped the opinion of government, the judiciary, the public? In our final list, we left out those who currently hold positions in government, such as attorney general Goolam Vahanvati and solicitor general Gopal Subramaniam. We also didn't consider Kapil Sibal and Arun Jaitley, because as HRD minister and leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, respectively, they don't practise anymore. In the end, we based our judgement primarily on what we saw and heard, first hand, in the courts...
NARIMAN'S POINT, COUNTERPOINT
He is the wise man of the Bar. Nariman's stature allows him to be blunt in court. He lets his displeasure be known when a judge fails to understand a point — "No, no, that's not what I mean."
Nariman, 81, has aged beautifully. His voice has turned metallic over the years, but it still booms in the biggest courtroom of all — the chief justice of India's , with its 40-feet high ceiling.
Nariman regularly loses his cool with assistants who try and come to his rescue while a judge is in the middle of asking him a question. "Listen to the judge first, I say," he tells them testily. He can also be impatient, especially with juniors who take too long to source a citation to buttress his arguments — "Quick, quick, what are you doing."
Nariman started life as a lawyer in 1951, under the legendary Jamsetjee Kanga, and was enriched by his senior's endless tales of real-life courtroom drama. He also imbibed his senior's motto: "Work is worship." (Nariman is proud of the fact that India's first chief justice Harilal Kania was also a product of Kanga's chamber.)
The case that got him into the real big league came 30 years into his career, in 1981. This was the Needle Industry Company Case which related to intricate questions in company law. Nariman's client had lost in the high court to the arguments of the famous H M Seerbhai. Nariman defended him with great technical brilliance before the Supreme Court, which finally ruled in favour of Nariman's client.
Even as he climbed the "greasy poles of success" , as he puts it, he has often found himself drawn to hopeless cases. Maybe, it's because he believes in the saying: "The important thing is not winning, but taking part; the important thing in life is not conquering, but fighting."
He charges Rs 2.5-3 lakh for a five minute argument on admission day, while a day-long hearing could see him earn upwards of Rs 25 lakh. But he does many cases for free, too. As for what he does with his money, his response is blunt: "That's nobody's business but mine." He's known to give a lot of money to charity (apart from his pro bono work), but won't disclose details.
Nariman's formula for success: "75 per cent hard work, 25 per cent court craft". His advice to younger lawyers? "Be humble before the court and do not suppress a fact even if it's against you."
SUPREME SOLI-LOQUIST
Sorabjee loves to be referred to as the former attorney general, for it brought him great glory. As AG, he successfully defended India against Pakistan in the Atlantique downing case in an international court. The Atlantique incident involved the Indian Air Force shooting down a Pakistan Navy plane, Breguet Atlantique, carrying 16 people on board, citing violation of airspace. The incident took place in the Rann of Kutch on August 10, 1999, just a month after the Kargil war, creating a tense atmosphere between India and Pakistan. Thanks to Sorabjee, the court exonerated India and the political situation regained a measure of normalcy.
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