A new book on the life and times of Soli Sorabjee, the former Attorney General of India, will hit the stands next month, announced Penguin Random House India (PRHI) on Wednesday.
The authorized biography titled ”Soli Sorabjee: Life and Times”, is chronicled by advocate and legal scholar Abhinav Chandrachud. March 9 marks the 92nd birth anniversary of the legal luminary.
It claims to reveal personal details of Sorabjee’s life, his family background, his journey in becoming a practitioner of law to a UN human rights rapporteur and repeatedly defending the fundamental right to free speech and expression in the Supreme Court.
”I am excited to finally see Sorabjee’s biography is published. I hope readers enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it,” said Chandrachud, who has also authored ”Republic of Rhetoric: Free Speech and the Constitution of India” (2017) and ”Supreme Whispers: Conversations with Judges of the Supreme Court of India 1980-1989” (2018).
Sorabjee, who died last year of coronavirus-related complications, had served as the AG for India twice — first from 1989-90 and then from 1998- 2004. How does a Parsi lawyer, deeply influenced by the principles of Roman Catholicism, fall in love with a Bahai and go on to become the Attorney General of India for a Hindu nationalist BJP government? How does a boy with a broken leg, who studied in a Gujarati medium school and lost his father at the age of nineteen, go on to mount a heroic defense of the Janata government’s decision to dissolve Congress state legislatures in the Supreme Court in 1977? These are some of the questions that the book seeks to answer.
Touted to be the ”first and only” authorized biography of Sorabjee, the book, according to the publishers, takes on the narrative flair and eloquence that one of India’s brilliant attorney generals was known for in his shrewd legal arguments.
”Soli Sorabjee was a fine mind, a quick wit, and an extraordinary lawyer. In Abhinav Chandrachud’s hands, his life story takes on the narrative flair and eloquence that Sorabjee himself was known for in his shrewd legal arguments. It is our privilege to publish the only authorized biography of one of our most brilliant attorney generals,” said Meru Gokhale, publisher, Penguin Press.
