John B. Monteiro, Bondel, Mangaluru

Indian Christians have to thank Soli Sorabji for their redemption from the scourge of Probate. A bit of background first. As Chev. Clarence Pais notes in autobiography, Dreamy Recollections, “the requirement of probate of wills of Christians was an unwanted legacy from the colonial British rule introduced primarily to help the British in India. I redeemed Christians in India from the legal compulsion to probate such wills… I was convinced that injustice was being done to Christians and it was a case fit to be challenged in the Supreme Court. In addition to my qualification as an advocate, I had the backing of the Christian Planters Guild and I was furthermore the President of Catholic Association of South Kanara (CASK). I wanted one of the best lawyers to file the case and, as luck would have it, Soli Sorabji, one of India’s most outstanding jurists, agreed to file it at a concessional rate. I filed a writ as President of CASK and on my own behalf. Unfortunately, when the writ came up for hearing, Soli Sorabji became the Attorney General of India. At the last moment, I could only engage a junior lawyer, who did his best, but…the writ was dismissed by a Division Bench of the Supreme Court. The judgment is reported in AIR 2001 Supreme Court page 1151. Later, Clarence Pais took the parliamentary route through the good offices of his boyhood friend, George Fernandes, who was the Defence Minister then, and he put him on to Arun Jaitley, Law Minister ( in Atal Bihari Vajpayee government). When the Bill came before Parliament, the entire Parliament voted in favour of the Bill and it became law and was numbered as Act No 26 of 2002. Unfortunately, Both Arun Jaitley and George Fernandes have expired since. Such is life.

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