Shri. N. A. Palkhivala is widely acknowledged to have been known as a great many things to a great many people. For the unsuspecting law student, his name creeps up as a reverential echo out of the many pages of the textbook on constitutional law. He has been known to be publicly called out as ‘Gods gift to India’, a ‘Court Room Genius’, a role model and more often, in casual conversations by the seniors of the Bombay bar, just ‘Nani’. It is when the law student is done grappling with the game changing concepts that were a direct contribution of this colossus at the bar in the guise of the celebrated ‘Keswananda Bharati’ Judgement, that the appreciation for the contribution towards the development of the law made by this doyen of the bar actually starts eclipsing the sheer awe that his very name commands from the highest court of the land to the lowest. A teacher, an author, a counsel an economist and a guru, he continues to be the role model that every lawyer asks his Juniors to adopt.

Posted on: January 27th, 2021