On the Bombay excessive courtroom, some are questioning who the following chief justice will likely be. Some are questioning whether or not the authorities will lastly chew the bullet and prohibit oral arguments to chop down delay.  A lot debate is occurring about who’s the very best choose within the excessive courtroom and who’s the slowest. As for myself, I’m questioning whether or not the Bombay excessive courtroom is privileged to have the oldest lively lawyer on this planet practising amongst them.

Avinash Rana or Kaka as he’s popularly recognized has turned 95 years and remains to be in lively observe.  The opposite day, after I was twiddling my thumbs within the courtroom library,  Kaka rushed into the studying room in full regalia.  I requested him the place he had been and he instructed me he had been arguing a matter for the Union of India earlier than the division bench.  I used to be deeply impressed.  Quickly he instructed me that he was going to run 10 kilometres in a race a couple of days later.  I bought anxious and went to my pal Uday Bobade to inform  him that we should always cease Kaka from operating 10 km.  Uday stated chill, he will likely be high quality.

Avinash Jaswantrai Rana was born on July 22, 1927 in Vadodara, Gujarat.  He was enrolled as an advocate in September 1953 and designated as a senior advocate in April 1979.  He joined Khurshetji Baba within the chambers of Jamshedji Kanga, popularly recognized within the Bombay excessive courtroom as Chamber No.1.  Nevertheless, he primarily labored with the late Soli Sorabjee, who turned lawyer common for India.

He’s at the moment over 95 and has accomplished 69 years of observe as a lawyer. He has appeared in issues together with M.C. Chagla, as additionally appeared earlier than him and would have appeared earlier than his grandson Riyaz Chagla, had he not thought it inappropriate to take action.  He appeared with Nani Palkhivala and M.C. Chagla within the financial institution nationalisation case and M.C. Chagla within the Kanan Devan Forest case.  He appeared for Royappa, a former chief secretary of Tamil Nadu, in opposition to the chief minister of Tamil Nādu.  On this case, the Supreme Court docket held that Article 14 can’t be confined to a mere clarification, it has a a lot wider convocation.

Kaka efficiently appeared within the passport case which let to the enactment to the Passport Act, 1958 which regulates the grant and refusal of passport.  One other case that he appeared in was Bharat Raja the place the Supreme Court docket laid down that the adjudicating authority is required to cross a talking order – that means thereby that purpose must be given for his determination.  He additionally appeared with H.M. Seervai within the Judges Switch case for the petitioners and in stopping detention circumstances beneath Cofeposa for the Union authorities with lawyer common Niren De and solicitor common Fali Nariman.  He was chief counsel for the fee of enquiry headed by Justice Srikrishna to look into the communal riots of 1992-93.  He’s counsel for the Union authorities within the Bombay excessive courtroom.  He appeared for the Ministry of Defence earlier than the fee of enquiry constituted by the state authorities in respect of the Adarsh constructing in Colaba.  He is a superb believer in Satya Sai Baba, similar to Palkhivala was.

He’s an fanatic of cricket and had the privilege, as a younger lad, of taking part in with the good Amar Singh, on whose premature demise the well-known commentator Bobby Talyarkhan stated that along with his dying India will likely be taking part in with solely 10 gamers.   He met Ranjitsinghji and Duleepsinghji.  He was chairman of the Bombay Public Service Fee.  He performed fairly a couple of matches in opposition to Vinoo Mankad and performed cricket for the senior advocates in opposition to the chief justice’s group until the age of 88.  Now he walks 7 to eight km each single day and intends to take part within the January 15 Mumbai Marathon within the 10 kilometres occasion.

In my opinion, he’s the oldest lively advocate on this planet.  In any occasion, probably the most lively.

Harsh A. Desai practices legislation in Mumbai