Page 10 - sands of time

10 SANDS OF TIME VOL. XVI, ISSUE 3, 2020

NANI PAlkhIvAlA – INvAlUABlE lEssONs AND ANECDOTEs
BY ARvIND P. DATAR, sENIOR ADvOCATE Of ThE sUPREME COURT Of INDIA

January 16, 2020 marked the birth centenary of
Nani Ardeshir Palkhivala. By a happy coincidence, it also marked the
70 anniversary of our Constitution. There is no dispute that, virtually
th
single handedly, Palkhivala saved the Constitution when his arguments
on basic structure were accepted by the Supreme Court. The net result
is that although the Parliament can amend the Constitution, it cannot
alter its basic structure or its essential features, which include the right
to freedom of speech and expression, religious freedom,
right to vote and so on.
FROM THE
No other lawyer in Indian history has had a meteoric rise as Palkhivala.
It is time to reflect upon the factors that made him such a success.
His life is a stirring and inspiring example of how a middle-class Parsi

boy, whose father owned a laundry,
could rise to national and international fame. Nani A. Palkhivala.

Invaluable lessons COLLECTION

After having interviewed his brother, close relatives Court canteen. His brother, Behram, told me that he
and other eminent judges, lawyers, Chartered never spent time in the Bar Library of the Bombay
Accountants and industrialists who had worked with High Court with other colleagues. He would rush back
Palkhivala, I found that his life gives us the following to his chambers after his case and immediately start
invaluable lessons: working on the next task. As there were no private
OF THE
airlines in those days, Palkhivala would ensure that
Outwork Everybody multiple tickets were booked in different flights of the

Every person I interviewed mentioned his phenomenal then Indian Airlines and he would go by the earliest
to finalise the response on behalf of the State of possible flight, cancelling other tickets even though
capacity for hard work. On one occasion, he was asked

Jammu & Kashmir against a writ petition filed by late he had to pay cancellation charges.
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Bakshi Ghulam Mohammed challenging his detention. No Multi-tasking
Palkhivala and his team started preparing the draft at
10.30 pm and completed the response by 4.30 am. The The late M.R. Pai, a close associate of Palkhivala, told
final response was then taken by the morning flight me that Palkhivala focused only on one thing at a time
to Delhi and thereafter to Srinagar and filed before and would keep only those papers and documents
the High Court just half an hour before the deadline that were required for the meeting. As soon as that
of 4.00 pm. In another instance, Thrity Dollykooka, his meeting was over, the papers would be set aside and
secretary for several years, recollects that Palkhivala the papers for the next meeting would be before him.
gave an appointment to a Chartered Accountant at His meetings were extremely brief, enabling him to do
3.30 am at his residence. This odd time was given
because he had to leave for the airport at 4.00 am! a huge volume of work in a single day.

No Wasting Time Planning a Clear strategy

Palkhivala was fanatical about not wasting time. The late Dinesh Vyas, who was his junior, pointed out
He never spent time chatting with any advocate. that Palkhivala would carefully plan his strategy in each
Ravinder Narain, an eminent Senior Advocate, told me case and compartmentalise the legal issues involved
that Palkhivala had never once gone to the Supreme and then formulate his propositions accordingly.

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