Sardar Khushwant Singh had written a book titled Men and Women in my life. A petition was filed by a lady journalist through Mr. Shali Advocate( who later became a judge of Delhi High Court) that the book was obscene, needed to be banned and Khushwant Singh be prosecuted. Soli Sorabjee appeared for Khushwant Singh. I held that the book contained nothing which could be considered obscene and while so holding I went into the question as to what is obscenity and why the articles contained therein could not be considered as obscene..After the judgement was upheld by the Supreme Court, Soli met me and told me that the judgement had been reported in CommonWealth Law Review which was a unique honour.
Before that he had sent me an article by Shoba De where she had complimented me.
Later when I gave judgement on the JMM case against Narsimha Rao and others he invited me to his house and complemented me. I had, in that judgement, compared the role of Buta Singh with a Sprint. Soli in his column referred to it.
I was from Judicial Service, on retirement from High Court service, judges used to be given farewell tea party while judges from Bar used to be given farewell dinner. I was the first service judge to be given farewell dinner and to my pleasant surprise Soli who was the then Attorney General made it a point to attend it.
On my retirement, he offered me the post of Chairman Company Law Board. I declined. He then asked me to become a member of the Law Commission .I told him I was opposed to after retirement assignments. With regard to it even Arun Jaitley had spoken to me and to him also I had made my stand clear.
Thereafter he invited me over dinner at IIC.. He made me its member.Much later he declined membership to a lady judge on some misinformation by another judge who later became Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court and who was quite close to Soli. When I came to know about it I talked to Soli who promptly made her a member. That lady judge on her retirement has distinguished herself with regular critical articles on judiciary in Indian Express.
On his 80th birthday he hosted a great party. He gave me a phone call inviting me and later came a reminder. I still feel the warmth of his embrace on that occasion.
Ah yes. He was a tenant in Sunder Nagar. The landlord wanted him to vacate. There was sharp correspondence from the landlord. I was honoured to be consulted by the person who had remained Attorney General of India. In fact I was honoured to draft a reply to his landlord.
He was so warm hearted. So witty. So sharp. And a wonderful host offering hard drinks to a teetotaler and wondering what sort of a Sardar I was.
I still remember the twinkle in his eyes.The mischief on his lips and the choicest Parsee jokes translated into English and prompting me to match them with equally choicest Sardar jokes.
I miss all this.And above all his ability to stand by what he felt to be right . Soli was the soul of the Bar. A man of conviction with indefatigable courage.
By God.I miss him.
Justice (Retd.) Jaspal Singh served as Judge, Delhi High Court.