Senior advocate Harish Salve has been appointed into Queen Elizabeth II’s counsel of senior advocate. He has been appointed as Queen’s Counsel (QC) for the courts of England and Wales.
Salve’s name appeared on the list of silk appointments released by the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Justice Department on January 13. According to the sources, the appointment of the counsel will officially take place on March 16, 2020, where the Lord Chancellor will preside over the appointment ceremony at Westminster Hall.
This title is awarded to those who have demonstrated particular skill and expertise in the conduct of advocacy.
Harish Salve began his legal career in 1980 at JB Dadachandji & Co., first as an intern, and later as a full-time lawyer. He was designated as Senior Advocate by the Delhi High Court in 1992. He went on to serve as Solicitor General for India from 1999-2002. Salve was called to Blackstone Chambers in 2013.
He has bagged many high profile cases in his career. Salve appeared for Bilkis Bano, a victim of the Gujarat Riots, at the behest of the National Huma Rights Commission in 2003.
In 2015 he took up the high-profile 2002 hit-and-run and the drunk-and-drive case of actor Salman Khan. The Bombay High Court on December 10, 2015, acquitted Salman Khan of all charges in the hit and run case.
Since 2017, he has been representing India before the International Court of Justice in the Kulbhushan Jadhav extradition case. He was able to get a stay order on his death sentence pronounced by a military court in Pakistan.
He was also applauded by many people when he stated that for representing India in the Kulbhushan Jadhav extradition case, he will charge the Indian Government an amount of Re. 1 as his legal fees for the proceedings.
Besides, Salve has openly come out in support of the government’s decision to amend the Citizenship Act as well as repeal Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir. He had asserted that Article 370 was a ‘mistake’ and the Modi government’s decision to abrogate it was the means to correct the mistake.
He had also stated that the Citizenship Amendment Bill (now an Act) is not anti-Muslim and it does not violate the Articles 14, 15 and 21 of Indian constitution as was claimed by naysayers.
Salve’s appointment as Queen’s Counsel is however not the only appointment of an Indian into the Counsel, along with him, UK based lawyer Shantanu Majumdar has also been appointed into the Counsel. A total of 114 advocates have been named in this year’s appointment into the Queen’s Counsel.
