Former Attorney General Soli Sorabjee dies due to COVID at 91

Veteran lawyer and former attorney general of India Soli Sorabjee died due to COVID-19 at a private hospital in Delhi. He was 91.

Born Soli Jehangir Sorabjee in 1930 in Bombay, he started his legal practice in the Bombay High Court in 1953. He was appointed as a senior counsel of the Supreme Court in 1971 and became the Attorney General of India, first between1989-90 and then in from 1998-2004.

In 1997, Sorajbee was appointed by the UN as a Special Rapporteur for Nigeria, and entrusted to report on the human rights situation in the country. He first became a member and later the chairman of the UN-Sub Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, from 1998 to 2004.

A well-known human rights lawyer, he also had been a member of the United Nations Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities since 1998.

Also a columnist for several dailies, Sorabjee was awarded the Padma Vibhushan in March 2002 for speaking up for freedom of speech and human rights.