Biography
HM Seervai was educated at Elphinstone College, Bombay (present-day Mumbai). He was called to the bar in 1929, and then served in the chambers of the legendary Sir Jamshedji Behramji Kanga.
Seervai served as Advocate General of Bombay from 1957 to 1960 and Maharashtra from 1960 until his resignation in 1974. During those years, he was offered various other positions in the Indian judicial system, including a seat on the Indian Supreme Court and as Attorney General for India. He declined these positions preferring to contribute through critical analysis of higher court judgements.
Those who are familiar with the legal profession know that his 3 volume work on Constitutional Law is the finest work on the subject and if an Indian advocate is well versed in it, he is automatically considered worthy of respect. Seervai was a man above all dedicated to truth and justice. This is precisely why he earned the respect of his colleagues, clients and readers alike.
Simplicity
In many respects, Seervai, the man, was greater than Seervai, the lawyer, but the two characters were inextricably mixed, making him the most respected person in law and giving him that indefinable eminence over several lawyers of his day who were reputed to be clever and more astute than he was. At a time when other seniors at the Bar made handsome incomes at the Bar, Seervai’s annual income would have put a junior to shame. He was quite indifferent to financial rewards in the profession and had contempt for lawyers who prided themselves in having a lucrative practice. The word lucrative, he reminded them, meant greed for gain. When he was told it would not be wrong to take high fees if clients were willing to pay them, Seervai retorted, “If a man was willing to be robbed would you be a thief?”
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