Who is soli dastur

Soli Uncle, as he was fondly called has left a huge legacy and touched the lives of thousands he came in contact with. On the request of the Dastur Family donations collected shall be used for the upliftment of Mobeds in Udvada and their housing and health and wellbeing needs.

As the youngest of 11 children Soli was in born in Tarapur, a small village, , to a priestly family from Udvada. On completing his B. Soli retired and lived in Bradenton, Florida with his wife Jo Ann of 54 years. They have twin daughters, Shirin and Anahita and five grandchildren.

Soli was an avid tennis player and dabbled with the computer in his free time. Zoroastrian Shop. Donate to Ervad Soli P. Dastur, Sr. The initial disappointment turned out to be a blessing in disguise, Mr. Dastur says. When the Editor of the 50th anniversary publication of the BCAJ approached me to write an article and suggested that I recollect real life experiences, I expressed serious reservations as to whether anybody would really be interested in the same.

I do hope the Editor does not have cause to regret his mistaken choice of person and subject. In any case, my vanity ultimately prevailed and I agreed to pick up my pen and let it run wild.

At that time, it was situated in premises belonging to the J. School of Arts with two divisions of the first year class being located in the Sukhadwala Building near Excelsior Cinema. My father was in the first batch of students of to enroll in the College! My brother as well as my wife graduated from Sydenham. It was, perhaps the only College with a tennis court!

In , the College shifted to its present location on B. Road near Churchgate. For the lectures by Prof. Sanat P. Mehta on the Indian Constitution, the class was always full even though the lectures were scheduled at a most unearthly hour early in the morning. In our days a student who took private tuitions was looked down upon as being backward! What I find even more surprising, and rather intolerable, is that I am told that today professors themselves do not attend regularly.

The other leading Counsel in the field of Tax Law at that time were Mr. Kolah and Mr. Kolah was also the foremost lawyer in the field of labour law — if this branch did not rub off on me it was, I suppose, because I did not labour enough.

Two Solicitors: Mr. Mulla and Mr. Tricumdas Dwarkadas also had a large practice in the Tribunal. Mulla and Mulla for the number of classical treatises he has written on varied legal subjects. I do not think anyone, the world over, has rivaled his achievement.

Harish, S. Dastur, V. Patil, Sudhir Mehta are on the dais. With the confidence arrogance of youth I decided to take the plunge in individual law practice as, according to me, it afforded independence. The next question was whose Chamber I should join. At the request of Mr. Dalal, the founding partner of the Chartered Accounting firm of Messrs. Palkhivala agreed to see me but not to accept me as a Junior! Thereafter, through the good offices of Mr. Maneck P. The legendary Nani Palkhivala.

The Law Chambers were at that time just newly located on the first floor of the Annexe building which was connected by a passage to the High Court Building. Chamber No. Kanga in which Seniors of great eminence like Mr. Bhabha, Mr. Murzban Mistree etc.

Kohla and chamber No. Later in , Counsel functioning from the Annexe building received notices to quit as the High Court wanted the premises for itself. The atmosphere on the 1st floor was unique. There was great fellowship between the 50 odd Counsel who occupied the 12 Chambers situated there including the Chambers of Mr.

Karl Khandalawalla, a lawyer of eminence at the Criminal Bar, and many more. Khandalawalla was a distinguished art critic. He was as devoted to art as Mr.

Kolah was to horse-racing and to dog-racing which latter sport he wanted to initiate at the Brabourne Stadium. Very often when Mr. Kolah was in the Supreme Court on a Friday but his matter had not concluded, he would fly back to Bombay on Friday night and after attending the races at Mahalaxmi on Sunday evening proceed by the early morning flight on Monday back to Delhi.

He travelled extensively for professional work and invariably went to the then Santa Cruz airport by the airport bus run by Indian Airlines. I still remember a delightful photograph which was displayed in Chamber No.

Kolah in a top hat and tail coat with his devoted and charming wife Lorna, which photograph was taken when they had attended the Epsom Derby race in England. See also the tribute paid by Mr. Dastur to R. My practice as a lawyer had a slow more accurately, a very slow and halting start. In the first year of my practice at the Bar I earned a total of Rs. A brief for applying for an adjournment at 2.

Koticha, Advocate. A fee of 2 Gold Mohurs GMs which is the denomination in which advocates practicing on the original side of the High Court traditionally marked and some still mark their fees. Interestingly a Gold Mohur, a currency prevailing in ancient times, was reckoned at Rs. The bearer of the brief could not locate Mr.

Koticha in the High Court library as, most fortunately! He noticed that having nothing better to do I was sitting in the Library and offered the brief to me. This incident increased my belief in a kind, benevolent and benign God who looked after briefless lawyers!

Dastur enjoying a light moment with Mr. Trivedi are in the background. I may mention that Mr. Palkhivala had once offered me employment in the legal department of Tatas at what I considered to be a princely salary. My brother, Jal, a Chartered Accountant of great learning, was vehemently against my accepting the offer and when I talked about it to Mr. Kolah he was forthright, as usual, in his view. If I remember correctly, there were just 2 or 3 Commissioners of Income-tax in Bombay jurisdiction.

I have lost track of the number of Principal Commissioners of Income-tax and Commissioners of Income-tax who now hold office. By it had shifted to its present location. I have not been able to discover exactly when such shift was effected.

Even the Encyclopaedic Dr. Shivaram, has not been able to enlighten me! I may refer to what I consider to be two unfortunate administrative aberrations on its part. The Headquarters of the Tribunal has always been at Bombay.

Three Presidents shifted the office of the President to Delhi. Thus, during their tenure, though the Headquarters of the Tribunal was at Bombay, the office of the Head of the Tribunal was in Delhi! The other unfortunate administrative decision is that the Tribunal now organizes a farewell meeting for a retiring member.

The hallowed tradition followed by the Income-tax Tribunal Bar Association, at Bombay, in the same manner as by the High Court Bar Association was that it was the prerogative of the Bar to organize a Reference to a retiring member if the Bar felt he merited one. The occasional decision of not granting a Reference on the retirement of a member considered by the Bar as not being fit to be so honoured was not acceptable to the authorities.

It is proudly claimed that the present Government is one which works. However, there does not appear to be any evidence in support thereof, at least in the law and judicial field.

When a vacancy will occur is known well in advance — the only exception being the unexpected event of resignation or unfortunate premature demise. Instead of spending time on making tax life more complicated, cannot the Ministries of Law and Finance find time to attend to this long-standing yet unresolved problem? The malaises of mounting arrears of tax appeals and writ petitions in the High Courts would be alleviated if more judicial members of the Tribunal, and perhaps even Accountant Members with appropriate judicial qualifications, were promoted to the High Courts and special benches dealing the year round with tax matters were set up in the High Courts.

It may also be appropriate if the Supreme Court collegium, which finally recommends persons for promotion to the High Courts, was a little more circumspect in rejecting proposals for such promotion made by a High Court. It is for serious consideration whether, in the event of there being a doubt about the fitness of a member for promotion to the High Court, it is possible to devise a system whereunder the Collegium obtains on the condition of maintenance of complete secrecy the views of Advocates of pre-eminent reputation, who have practiced before the concerned person.

Legal practice can be broadly of 2 types: a table practice comprising of advisory work in conference, furnishing of written opinions and drafting pleadings and b arguing matters before different fora.

Variety is the spice of life and, as in life generally, it is always good to have a combination of all possibilities. A ready repartee, a light hearted remark sometimes achieves more than learned legal submissions based on case laws.

One has also to cultivate the ability to deal on the spot with arguments urged by the opposing Counsel. The ability to do all this is what distinguishes an Advocate from a lawyer. Law can be learnt from text books, — advocacy requires an inherent talent and experience. The practice of tax laws is not confined just to the provisions of the relevant Direct Tax Acts. Even the provisions of the Evidence Act and of criminal law may have to be applied. A judge once addressed Counsel arguing a tax appeal before him by saying.

About 3 or 4 years after I joined the legal profession, Mr. Palkhivala gradually shifted the field of his operation from Chamber No. It was somewhat of a unique decision because Counsel generally prefer to operate from their own independent chambers without being associated with a particular business house. In retrospect I felt that it was all to the good that he had not approved of me as a prospective junior.

Unfortunately, in life when one is faced with a disappointment it is only in retrospect that one thinks of the disappointment as being all for the good. Lord Macnaghten in London County Council v. It is not meant to be a tax on anything else. The publication of the Income-tax Report started in The proliferation of litigation is shown by the fact that whereas till we had only one volume of the Income-tax Reports per year, now in we have 10 Volumes per year and I do not know how many volumes will generate!

The Tax Cases in England published from presently are in the 80th volume. Of course, in so far as the legal profession is concerned, the Indian overdose is all to the good!

I may note in passing something which is rather intriguing. There is today a strong lobby which doubts the wisdom of several provisions in the annual Finance Bills sometimes 2 per year which amend the Income-tax Act. The thought process which goes into the enactment of the proposed amendments is best illustrated by the fact that recently the Finance Bill, , was apparently passed by the Lok Sabha without debate.