Hormasji Maneckji Seervai

Hormasji "Homi" Maneckji Seervai (1906 - 1996) was an Indian jurist.

Biography

HM Seervai was educated at Elphinstone College, Bombay (present-day Mumbai). He was called to the bar in 1929, and then served in the chambers of the legendary Sir Jamshedji Behramji Kanga.

Seervai served as Advocate General of Maharashtra from 1957 until his retirement in 1974. During those years, he was offered various other positions in the Indian judicial system, including a seat on the Indian Supreme Court and as Attorney General for India. He declined these positions preferring to contribute through critical analysis of higher court judgements.

Achievements and awards

Seervai is best known for his 1967 analysis, the "Constitutional Law of India". This work contributed significantly to the "Kesavananda Bharati vs. The State of Kerala" case (1973) that led to the development of the "Basic structure doctrine", which inhibits politically-motivated changes to the Constitution of India.

Seervai was awarded the Padma Vibhushan in 1972. In 1981, he was elected an Honorary Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy. Also in 1981, he was awarded the Dadabhai Naoroji Prize. In 1982, Seervai was appointed Honorary Fellow of the Asiatic Society of Bombay. The International Bar Association recognized him as a "Living Legend of Law" in 1994.

His controversial "Partition of India: Legend and Reality" (1990) challenged the existing view that blamed the partition of India on the Muslim League. He argued instead that it was the latent bias on the part of Indian National Congress leadership which resulted in partition.

References

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