10 amazing facts about Harish Salve who destroyed Pakistan
- Senior advocate Harish Salve charged just 1 Rupee to fight Kulbhushan Jadhav's case
- He is a music lover and passionate piano player
- Before becoming an advocate, he was practising CA
- Mukesh Ambani, Ratan Tata, Salman Khan, Lalit Modi are some of his clients
FollowHarish Salve who took just 1 rupee as a fee to fight Pakistan in the International Court of Justice and brought a stay on Kulbhushan Jadhav’s death sentence is one of the most expensive and extensively considered advocates in India.
Hailing from Chhindwara in Madhya Pradesh state, Harish Salve had many inspirations from his family to choose this profession. Here are ten amazing facts and milestone cases he has fought.
1) Advocacy in the blood: Harish Salve is the son of a prominent politician and Congress leader NKP Salve. His mother Amriti Devi is a doctor. However, looks like he drew his inspiration from grandfather PK Salve, who was a criminal lawyer. In addition, his great grandfather was a subordinate judge.
2) Salve is qualified as a Chartered Accountant. He has specialised in taxation and later moved on to the legal profession. Salve is said to be inspired by Nani Palkhivala, an eminent tax lawyer to take up the legal profession.
3) Salve is a lover of music and a passionate piano player, apart from being a CA and an expert lawyer.
4) In 1980 he started as an intern at JB Dadachandji & Co and assisted Palkhivala in the Minerva Mills case. He also worked with former Attorney General, Soli Sorabjee from 1980 for six years.
5) Salve’s wife Meenakshi was not happy about him bringing work home. She used to be tensed watching him get tensed after watching the evening news which resulted in him spending more time on work even when at home.
6) Now 61-years-old, Salve charges between Rs 10 lakh to 20 lakh for one appearance in the court. His clients being Mukesh Ambani, Sunil Mittal, Ratan Tata, actor Salman Khan, political leaders Mulayam Singh Yadav and former cricket lord Lalit Modi, he had no problem in charging them exorbitantly and has won most of the cases.
7) Salve played a key role in striking down Section 66A of the Constitution. Section 66A considered sending offensive messages through communication service, etc. punishable. It stated that ‘Any person who sends, by means of a computer resource or a communication device,- Any information that is grossly offensive or has menacing character Any information which he knows to be false, but for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience, danger, obstruction, insult, injury, criminal intimidation, enmity, hatred or ill will, persistently by making use of such computer resource or a communication device, Any electronic mail or electronic mail message for the purpose of causing annoyance or inconvenience or to deceive or to mislead the addressee or recipient about the origin of such messages, shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years and with fine. We should thank Salve for his efforts in striking the draconian rule down.
8) Salve was behind the buses in Delhi asked to switch to cleaner CNG fuel to fight air pollution. The suggestion was highly unpopular but was accepted. Though the suggestion was not implemented happily, it helped the cause of the environment.
9) He was also the amicus curiae in 2002 Gujarat riot cases, including that of Bilkis Bano. The Bombay High Court had later upheld life sentence awarded to 11 men for raping Bano.
10) Biggest of all his achievements, Salve just charged Rupees 1 and brought relief to India and the family of Kulbhushan Jadhav, former Indian Navy officer in the International Court of Justice in The Hague. He fought against Pakistan, who had sentenced Jadhav on charges of espionage.
