H.M.Seervai
H.M.
Seervai (1906—1996) held the office of Advocate General
of Maharashtra, India from 1957 to 1974.
During his long and illustrious career at the Bar, he was offered
the judgeship of the Supreme Court of India, the Bombay High Court,
and the office of the Attorney General for India. He declined
these positions believing that he could best contribute to constitutional
and administrative law through critical analysis of High Court
and Supreme Court judgments, by concentrating on his book The
Constitutional Law of India.
Seervai’s magnum opus The Constitutional Law of India, first
published in 1967, ran into four editions during his lifetime.
It has been acclaimed as a classic. It was primarily for this
contribution to constitutional law, that he was the recipient
of the Padma Vibhushan in 1972. In 1981, he was elected an Honorary
Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy. In electing him,
the British Academy recognized Seervai as of outstanding merit
throughout the jurisdiction which participates in the British
and American legacies. Seervai was also awarded the Dadabhai Naoroji
Prize in 1981, and in 1992, he was elected an Honorary Fellow
of the Asiatic Society of Bombay. In 1994, the International Bar
Association conferred on Seervai the award of Recognition as a
Living Legend of Law.
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