Praise for SC judge: ‘Wise, just, humane’

MUMBAI: If it weren’t the gavel, it would have been a conductor’s baton for him. But then, the nation would have lost out on a “wise, just and humane” judge at the Supreme Court, as his friend, former advocate general Darius Khambata described Justice Rohinton F. Nariman. The F stands for Fali, his famous legal doyen of a father. But it could as well easily stand for ‘fair’, ‘frightfully intelligent’ and ‘fine legal mind’.
The Parsi community felicitated Justice Nariman at Colaba on Saturday, heaping praise, adulation and blessings on a judge who, few outside the community know, is also a scholar of Zoroastrian and comparative religion, of history and western classical music—the last of which he would have chosen as career and become a conductor had law not lured him.
The Parsi Punchayet chief Dinshaw Mehta, his classmate and entertainment industry giant Ronnie Screwvalla, acclaimed Dr Farokh Udwadia, senior counsels Fredun DeVitre and Janak Dwarkadas all recalled the new judge’s exceptional memory, discipline and natural flair to outshine, and his gifted mind.
Justice Nariman is only the fifth lawyer to be directly elevated to the bench in Supreme Court, a remarkable feat. His presence there, speakers agreed, is the beginning of his achievement.
As the evening turned nippy at Cusrow Baug, where hundreds of Parsis had turned up, it was easily overcome by the warmth they felt for their own “Ro” as he was to his friends like advocate Dwarkadas when young.