The Oxford India Centre for Sustainable Development expresses its condolences for the sad demise of Indian jurist and Former Attorney General for India, Mr Soli Sorabjee, on April 30, 2021.
Mr Sorabjee was a prolific writer and constitutional law expert with over seven decades of experience as a legal professional and was a recipient of the Padma Vibushan, one of the highest civilian awards of the India. He died of coronavirus at a hospital in New Delhi. He was 91.
As a friend of the OICSD over the past years, Mr Sorabjee was immensely supportive of our work in setting up Oxford scholarships for Indian students who would have otherwise not been able to take up their place at the university. Mr Sorabjee was particularly supportive of the Cornelia Sorabji Law programme, a thriving postgraduate and postdoctoral programme for talented Indian graduate students who seek to lead change on their return to India.
The OICSD has been fortunate to have interacted with Mr Sorabjee on a few occasions.
In April 2016, the former Principal of Somerville College Dr Alice Prochaska was invited to speak at the Supreme Court of India to several hundreds of India’s top advocates on the life and career of Cornelia Sorabji – the first woman lawyer in India, who did her education at Somerville College, Oxford. Mr Soli Sorabjee also spoke at the event, along with Ram Jethmalani, Senior Advocate to the Supreme Court of India, and Fali Nariman, distinguished Indian Constitutional jurist.
We are immensely honoured and proud of our association with Mr Sorabjee. We offer our deepest condolences to the family.
Soli Sorabjee speaking at an event on the life of Cornelia Sorabji at the Supreme Court of India in April 2016.