The Seervai Legacy

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Description
H. M. Seervai (1906-1996) held the office ofAdvocate General of Maharashtra from 1957 to 1974. Offered a judgeshipof the High Court, and later, of the Supreme Court, he declined theseoffices, and also declined the office of Attorney General of India.
The President of India conferred on Seervai the Padma Vibhushan, mainly for his books.
The British Academy elected him a Corresponding Fellow, writing, afterhe died, "The Corresponding Fellowship of this Academy is reserved forScholars of the highest academic distinction, and we were proud tonumber H. M. Seervai among them.
His election to the British Academy in 1981 paid tribute to hisoutstanding contribution as Jurist, Law Officer, and Advocate toConstitutional Law, primarily in India, where he fearlessly anddispassionately maintained the Constitution, of which he was theprincipal exponent and interpreter; but also as a comparative Scholarrecognised as of outstanding merit throughout the jurisdiction whichparticipates in the British and American legacies".
Seervai was also elected an Honorary Fellow of the Asiatic Society of Bombay.
Seervai's magnum opus Constitutional Law of India - A CriticalCommentary, ran into 4 editions, starting in 1967 and ending with hisdeath in 1996. About it, The Times Literary Supplement (London) wrote:
... he has written a book which is unusually self-contained. No one canread it without acquiring both an adequate grasp of the legal aspectsof the Indian Constitution and a clear understanding of the effect uponthose aspects of the later amendments and o, the successive judgmentsof the Supreme Court. . . . This is an excellent book, a credit both toits author and k the general standard of learning which, the Indianlegal profession may find just cause for pride.
His Partition of India - Legend and Reality was reviewed by theEconomist (London) with the words For the foreseeable future, Mr.Seervai's (account of Partition) must remain the most authoritativeversion. Only he hat made full use of the official British documents.... As for the massacres and population exchanges, Mr. Seerva proveshis case that it was Mountbatten who was largely responsible.... Thanksto Mr. Seervai's concise and rigorous presentation of the material inthe 12 volumes of the Transfer of Power especially in the last volume,there must now be a reappraisal of reputations.
Seervai wrote The Emergency Future Safeguards and the habeas CorpusCase: A Criticism and the Position of the Judiciary under theConstitution of India (University of Bombay), as well as Federalism andthe Indian constitution (University of Mexico). He was invited to givethe Tagore Law Lectures, but declined, for want of time.
Seervai was a philosopher who lived his philosophy, and a lover ofliterature who recited poetry from memory for the sheer joy of it.
Seervai received the Award of Recognition as a Living Legend of Lawfrom the International Bar Association; and the Dadabhai NowrojeeMemorial Prize.
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Contents
H. M. Seervai
The Administration of Justice
•    Two letters to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court
•    Evidence before the Setalvad Law Commission
•    Speech welcoming the members of the Commission at Bar Reception
The Legal Profession and the State —
The Place of Law Officers and Ministers of Justice
Goodness
Prof. J.C.P. d'Andrade
Religious Freedom under Our Constitution and Social Reform
Babri Masjid
Establishing Trust
Poetry and Life
Widow Remarriage
A Common Civil Code — a Mirage
Judicial Review
The Advocate General
•    Assumption of Office
•    Fifteen Years of Office
•    Resignation from Office
•    Congratulation on resignation
Meherbai Seervai
True Charity
The Rule of Law
Mohammad Ali Jinnah
Distinguished Lawyers
•    Sir Jamshedji Kanga
•    Dr. K. M. Munshi
•    Motilal Setalvad
•    M. C. Chagla
•    Sir Nusserwanji Engineer
•    S. R. Tendolkar
•    P. B. Gajendragadkar
Facsimile Opinion
Why the Critical Commentary on Constitutional Law was Commenced
Attorney General's Office Declined
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Author Details
H.M.Seervai