Renowned senior advocate Iqbal Chagla, who died on 12 January 2025 at the age of 85, will always be remembered as a vocal campaigner against irregular practices and conduct.
Various media reports said he had been unwell for some time. Members of the legal fraternity and his family attended the funeral at Worli Crematorium in Mumbai on 13 January 2025.
Chagla started his practice in the 60s and was active primarily before the Bombay High Court. He was president of the Bombay Bar Association for three consecutive terms from 1990 till 1999, and had also served as a member of the executive committee of the Bar Association of India and a member of the National Legal Services Authority, Delhi.
He was known for many accomplishments during his career, including becoming a prominent voice against irregular practices, including corruption, at Bombay High Court, where he called for the resignations of sitting judges. He also turned down the opportunity to be promoted to the Supreme Court of India directly from the bar.
Ashish Goel, an advocate practising before the Supreme Court of India, lauded his colleague. “My memory of Iqbal Chagla has been and continues to be of an all-rounded person. I was enchanted by his simplicity. He was a great advocate who could turn a case around with great ease. He was a guide to young lawyers and the legal profession is much poorer by his demise,” Goel said.
He was also a guide and role model for the young members of the fraternity. Aditya Bapat, advocate before the Bombay High Court and co-founder-cum-creative producer of the Bombay Bar Association Podcast, fondly remembers his senior.
“I only met Mr Chagla once, at his apartment, for taping (for the podcast). Sometime later, he had graced an event at the Bar and he passed me as he walked to the front. Then he turned, looked back, smiled at me and said ‘hello’. It made my day,” Bapat recounts.
Chagla was an alumnus of Cambridge University, UK, and was also called to the Bar from Gray’s Inn in London.
He is the son of late Justice MC Chagla, the first permanent Indian Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court after India gained independence. Iqbal Chagla is survived by his son, sitting Bombay High Court Justice Riyaz Iqbal Chagla, and other family members.
