Meet India’s Most Expensive Lawyer – Harish Salve

Harish Salve is the most expensive lawyer in India and has handled many high-profile cases over the years. In his young days, he never wanted to become a lawyer, instead he was planning to make a career in Accountancy! And today he is the role model to many law aspirants in India and abroad. Read this blog to find out how he landed at a law school and his life was transformed after that!

Who is Harish Salve?

Harish Salve is an Indian lawyer who specializes in constitutional and taxation laws. He primarily practiced at the Supreme Court of India but also appeared in various High Courts and in international arbitration. Sometimes as a counsel and other times as an adjudicator. He was also ranked 19th in India’s 50 Most powerful by India Today magazine in the year 2019.

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Early Life

Harish Salve was born in Nagpur and belongs to a family of lawyers. He is the son of N K P Salve, who was an eminent politician and a member of the Indian National Congress. His grandfather, P.K. Salve was also a successful criminal lawyer. The Salve family is of Maharashtrian origin but originally from Chhindwara in Madhya Pradesh.

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The Turning Point

As a young boy, Harish Salve wanted to be an Engineer but by the time he was ready for college he got interested in Chartered Accountancy. He did his schooling at St. Francis DeSales High School, Nagpur, Maharashtra, and college at Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University. The turning point in Harish Salve’s career story came in 1975. While Salve was preparing for the CA exam, he prepared a note on some complicated points on the settlement commission’s proceedings which raised some new issues for interpretation. When that note was shown to Nani Palkhivala, he was very impressed and immediately asked Harish Salve to join the profession.

I love India. pic.twitter.com/rGjt07tHuc

— HARISH SALVE (@harishsalvee) March 2, 2019

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Career 

Harish Salve qualified as a Chartered Accountant and practised as a CA in taxation from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. In 1980, he began his legal career as an intern and after some time as a full-time lawyer at J.B. Dadachandji & Company. He assisted Nani Palkhivala in the Minerva Mills case during his internship. Later, he was appointed as a Senior Counsel by the Delhi High Court.

From 1980 to 1986 he worked with the former Attorney General.  In November 1999 he became the Solicitor General of India. As a law officer for the Union of India, he conducted a lot of important matters like the first ‘Anti-Dumping’ case in the Supreme Court of India and the case of ‘privatization of PSUs’. He was also involved in important non-litigation work such as managing the WTO negotiations and setting up legislation for the Competition Commission which gave him a larger perspective on legal matters beyond litigation issues.

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Awards and Achievements

Harish Salve has received many awards under his name. Some of the important awards and achievements in his life you should know are mentioned below:

• Harish Salve has The Padma Bhushan. It is the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India, preceded by the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan and followed by the Padma Shri
• He was also honored by the Rotary Club of Madras hailed by K Parasaran & Mohan Parasaran
• He was also the Queen’s Counsel for the courts of England and Wales

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Some Famous Cases of Harish Salve

Vodafone Case

Mukesh Ambani Gas Dispute Against His Brother Anil

Quotes by Harish Salve

Let’s see some of the quotes by Harish Salve which he quoted while he was in court. He made a statement on these topics:

• Badly informed criticism should be killed by the bar association and not dueled by the power of contempt

“We have always accepted that the decisions of the courts can be criticized, even in a language that can be impolite. Can we criticize the decision-making process? Why not? Can’t we ask why certain cases were heard in certain ways? Of course, we can. Since the judiciary is administered under the public eye, the decision-making process is scrutinized. ”

• Criticism should not be aimed at undermining public confidence in the institution

“To say that an institution has lost its independence, to say that the judiciary is acting at someone’s behest, to allege corruption when it turns out to be not true, this clearly undermines public belief.”

• Society is not mature enough to dispel the contempt of the judgment

“I do not think we are ready to abolish the principles of scandalizing the judiciary and scorn. I do not think that we in India have reached the stage of maturity in our society where people are reluctant or have the maturity to understand which is a ridiculous accusation. ”

• The bar must take action against criticism of judges and courts

“We owe something to our judges. We as lawyers are part of the same institution, and it is true that the court cannot respond to ill-informed criticism, but it is also true and important to remember that we are part of the institution who have to deal with grievances. ” informed criticism. ”

•  The right to speak has been expanded to include the right to know

“The right to speak is expanded to include the right to know, to develop the principle of transparency. No government can think of removing the RTI law or restricting freedom of expression. Today’s governments are forced to accept that democracy is non-negotiable. That alone is a great step forward.”

This was all about the story of Harish Salve. Are you planning to pursue law from top-ranked universities in the world? Reach out to our experts at Leverage Edu and we will assist you at every step of your journey to land at your dream university abroad!