Harish Salve | |
|---|---|
| Solicitor General of India | |
| In office 1 November 1999 – 3 November 2002 | |
| Preceded by | N. Santosh Hegde |
| Succeeded by | Kirit Raval |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1955-06-22)22 June 1955 (age 70) |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 2 |
| Residence(s) | New Delhi, India London, United Kingdom |
| Alma mater | Nagpur University (BCom,LLB) Institute of Chartered Accountants of India |
| Profession | Senior Advocate |
| Awards | Padma Bhushan |
Harish SalveKC is an Indiansenior advocate who practices at theSupreme Court of India. He served as theSolicitor General of India from 1 November 1999 to 3 November 2002. He also fought the case ofKulbhushan Jadhav at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). On 16 January 2020 he was appointed as aKing's Counsel for the courts of England and Wales.
Harish Salve was born into aMarathi family. His father,N. K. P. Salve, was a chartered accountant and prominent politician of theIndian National Congress. His mother, Ambriti Salve, was a doctor. His grandfather, P.K. Salve, was a successful criminal lawyer and his great-grandfather (father of P.K. Salve) was a munsif (subordinate judge).[1] Salve who is a Christian, grew in a multi-religious family with a liberal secularism at his home.[2]
He did his schooling atSt. Francis De'Sales High School, Nagpur, Maharashtra.[3] He completed his Chartered Accountancy fromICAI and LLB fromNagpur University.[4] The former chief Justice of IndiaSharad Arvind Bobde was his classmate in school. Before he became a lawyer, Salve practised Chartered Accountancy in taxation. He began his legal career as an intern in 1980 at JB Dadachandji & Co.[5]
He began his legal career in 1980 at J. B. Dadachandji & Co., first as an intern, and later as a full-time lawyer. During this time, he assistedPalkhivala in the Minerva Mills case (case citation: AIR 1980 SC 1789).[6] Salve was later designated aSenior Counsel by theDelhi High Court.
Salve worked with formerAttorney General,Soli Sorabjee, from 1980 to 1986.[7] He declined to be nominated for a second three-year term due to "personal reasons" when his first term ended in November 2002.[8] He later clarified that his wife was unhappy with him bringing work home.[9]
Salve was appointed asAmicus Curiae by the Supreme Court in some cases, mostly relating to preservation of the environment. However, in 2011, he recused himself from this position during a hearing onillegal mining, on the grounds that he had previously appeared for one or more of the parties.
In 2013, Salve was admitted to theEnglish Bar and subsequently joined theBlackstone Chambers.[10]
Harish Salve argued the first Anti-Dumping case in the Supreme Court of India. He frequently represents large corporations likeMukesh Ambani'sReliance Industries Limited. He has appeared in theKrishna Godavari Basin gas dispute case against the latter's brother,Anil Ambani'sReliance Natural Resources Limited.
Other clients include theTata Group,ITC Limited, whom he has represented on various in matters. He has appeared for several Tata group companies. He has also appeared forRatan Tata himself.[citation needed]
Salve representedVodafone in its $2.5 billion tax dispute with theIndian government. He initially lost the case in theBombay High Court,[11] but later won it at the Supreme Court after taking a temporary residence in London and relocating his office there to focus solely on the case.[12] Salve was extremely critical of the Indian government for passing a retrospective clarification to the Income Tax law in the 2012Union Budget, which nullified the Supreme Court's decision.[13]
Salve appeared for Bilkis Bano, a victim of theGujarat Riots, at the behest of theNational Human Rights Commission in 2003.[14] He also appeared as a defence counsel in theAarushi-Hemraj double murder case.[citation needed]
In 2015, he took up the high-profile case of actorSalman Khan. The actor was earlier sentenced to five years in jail for a 2002 hit-and-run accident that left one man dead and four others injured.[15] Senior counsel Amit Desai, a Mumbai-based lawyer replaced Salve for a short time in the Salman Khan trial.[16] The Bombay High Court eventually suspended the sessions court decision and on 10 December 2015 acquitted Salman Khan of all charges for the 2002 hit-and-run and drunk-and-drive case.[17]
In May 2017, he represented India before theInternational Court of Justice in theKulbhushan Jadhav case. Jadhav was sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on charges of spying.[18] Due to his efforts, the International Court of Justice has ordered a provisionalstay on Jadhav's execution until a final verdict is declared. For this case he charged only ₹1(INR) in legal fees.[19]India Today magazine ranked him 43rd in India's 50 Most powerful people of 2017 list.[20]
Harish Salve first married to Meenakshi Salve and their marriage lasted for good 38 years. He lives and works in North London. Salve divorced Meenakshi in the June 2020 and married Caroline Brossard, a London-based artist, on October 28, 2020.[21] Harish Salve had first met Brossard at an art event.[22] He has two daughters, Sakshi and Saaniya, from his first marriage.[22]
On September 3, 2023, Salve married to Trina[21] in London at a ceremony attended by notable figures like Nita Ambani and fugitives from Indian law like Lalit Modi and Moin Qureshi.
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