Designated as the Youngest Senior Advocate in the country, the youngest Additional Solicitor General of India, and elected as the youngest Vice President of the Supreme Court Bar Association; Dr. Abhishek Manu Singhvi has displayed a remarkable amalgam of intellect, logic and oratorical skill in the legal profession.
LAWZ: What inspired you to take up this profession?
AMS: Several reasons led me to the legal profession. Firstly, there was a natural self-invoked inclination for the legal profession, with no family pressures or coercion. However, the family ambiance does have a background effect in an unspoken and unstated sense. Secondly, the remarkable diversity of the profession attracted me. This profession is linked to real and every day life more than perhaps any other profession. Thirdly, the remarkable amalgam of intellect, logic, inductive understanding, oratorical skill and sustained hard work which it involves. Perhaps this is a cocktail of qualities which virtually no other profession demands.
LAWZ: Did you have any problems as a fresher in the profession?
AMS: Like all beginners I too faced several difficulties. Firstly, the usual moments of self doubt, lack of confidence and of the fear that you will make a fool of yourself in front of every body else. Secondly, the burden of comparison if you are perhaps not seen up to the mark despite coming from an illustrious legal lineage. Thirdly, my deep seeded, almost psychotic fear of procedural matters. I just could not bring myself to do them. This led me to decide early on, to do whatever little arguing work I could take up.
LAWZ: You have been the Additional Solicitor General of India and also the Vice President of the Supreme Court Bar Association. How is this experience different from being in private practice?
AMS: The ASG’s post is a tremendous learning process. One learns from the inside the modalities of the working of the government and, more important, its way of thinking and its basic approach. There is a tremendous sense of responsibility because the matters are of great significance and have an all-India impact. One is exposed to dealings with Ministers, Senior Government officials and having access to highly secret and confidential information.
Being the Vice President of SCBA, on the other hand, exposes you to the nitty gritty of the Bar in the apex court – the working conditions, absence of a lawyers welfare scheme, the lack of adequate infrastructural facilities like chambers, canteen, library, and so on and so forth. You are also dealing with a very diverse array of lawyers of different looks and different approaches.
LAWZ: Your wife is a celebrity – a singer, an artist and a lawyer. She has carved out a different field for herself. Do you both get enough time for yourselves with such a tight schedule?
AMS: Ever since I have been reasonably successful in the profession, I have always wished for a 36 hour if not a 48 hour day! Time is always at a premium but I am supposed to be the best time manager in our family, and I am fairly strict about my private moments. But it is my other interests, including writing and speaking at several fora, that has made time management more difficult. My wife is perpetually dissatisfied as all wives would be if they see their husbands juggling different mistresses, including those of law, politics and academia. But I have scrupulously taken a four week holiday every year for the last 15 years in June. I also keep Friday evenings and at least half of Sundays free from outside interference, though I must candidly confess that it never always wholly works out that way. My wife’s artistic interests are fortunately a good counter point to my own relatively more mundane legal, political and academic interests.
LAWZ: If you had a whole day to yourself, how would you spend it?
AMS: My ultimate high, my ultimate dream and my ultimate kick, is to have a whole day to myself, doing nothing except lazing around and reading, or at the most watching an enjoyable movie. I get to do this mostly on holidays. I also like music, travel and eating out, some or all of which I try to do on a lazy day, entirely with my family.
LAWZ: Which jurist or any particular work/branch of law inspires you most, and why?
AMS: My academic interest is mainly in the realm of public law – constitutional and administrative law, to be precise. I did my Ph.D. with the renowned Prof. Sir William Wade on Emergency Powers. My thesis covered the four jurisdictions of USA, UK, India and International Law. There are several pathfinders of law whose readings and writings have inspired me. Amongst the Indian Judges, the judgments of Justice B.K. Mukherjee and Krishna Iyer do stand out. Amongst legal writers, Prof. Sir William Wade occupies a special place. Lawrence Tribe, who teaches constitutional Law at Harvard, is also a brilliant jurist who has inspired me in my student days when I met him at Harvard.
LAWZ: One of the common grievances which the public has with the justice delivery system is its slow pace. What do you think is the root cause for this problem?
AMS: My special area of interest since the early 90s has been arrears reduction (i.e. beating the backlog) and the reform of the legal system. The solution lies in a multi-pronged attack on the arrears problem which must be carried on without interruption in a sustained manner for atleast 3 years. Elements of this multi-pronged attack would include filling up all judicial vacancies one month before the retirement of the incumbent, computerisation in all the courts including lower courts, listing of cases in batches after classification on subject matter mode, a mandatory menu of Alternative Disputes Resolutions (ADR) options to all litigants-specially in the civil justice system, provision of infrastructure to all our court systems at all levels and so on and so forth. Although a figure of 3 crore plus pending cases seems to be mammoth and unassailable, a sustained multi-pronged strategy will show immediate results.
LAWZ: What advice do you have for young and upcoming lawyers?
AMS: It is easy to preach and to be didactic. But I want to be neither. First and foremost is hard work because in law there are no short cuts from hard work. Second is a high degree of sincerity and straightforwardness in all your dealings, with clients, colleagues and judges. An attention to quality (which has sadly been declining in recent years) is necessary. I would also recommend young lawyers to read Glanville Williams’ delightful little book, “Learning the Law”.
LAWZ: You did a 3 year course in law. But now a days there is a demand of a 5 year course. What should be appropriate duration of course in law?
AMS: Success in the profession depends not on whether law is taught for 3 or 5 years. Success depends upon the excellence in whichever institution one chooses to study. The whole purpose of setting up special Law Universities with 5-year courses is to create centres of excellence like the IIMs and IITs for law. I strongly support the move and am privileged to be closely associated with at least three of the five national law schools. Compulsory apprenticeship is vital but it appears to have become a mere formality in India. An institutional mechanism must be created to ensure that all students do get a real and proper opportunity to work.
LAWZ: What can lawyers do for the society?
AMS: Over the years, it has been forgotten that Law is a profession first and not a business. The only difference between a profession and a business is that the former must have an element of service in it, and the element of commerce must be secondary. Unfortunately, the reverse has become true. Lawyers must act individually and collectively, as a community of professionals, before it is too late to refurbish their image in society by implementing socially ameliorative reforms e.g. proper legal aid, minimum delay in the disposal of cases, elimination of touting and other unconscionable or sharp practices. A concern for the litigant alone will ensure long term health, prosperity and growth of what is supposed to be known as a noble profession.