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One of India’s most famous lawyers, Harish Salve, will be in Vinesh Phogat’s corner when she appears before the Court of Arbitration for Sports today, appealing against her disqualification from the Paris Olympics. The senior advocate has a stellar track record: he successfully defended India’s Kulbhushan Jadhav at the International Court of Justice against Pakistan read more
 "Can Harish Salve help Vinesh Phogat get Olympic silver? Who is he?")
Senior advocate Harish Salve has agreed to defend Vinesh Phogat at the CAS hearing today against her disqualification from the Paris Olympics. File image/ANI
When Indian wrestler Vinesh Phogat appears before the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) today (August 9) in her appeal against her disqualification from the Paris Olympics for being overweight, she will have one of India’s most renowned lawyers, Harish Salve, in her corner.
The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) moved CAS, the highest international tribunal dedicated to resolving disputes related to sports, appealing against Vinesh’s disqualification on two counts. The first was to let her weigh in again, which the court rejected, and the gold medal match went ahead as scheduled. The second appeal was to award her a silver medal because she had earned it with a proper weigh-in on Tuesday. The CAS has said that it will deliberate on this matter.
The hearing is scheduled for 9:00 am Paris time (12:30 pm IST) and many hope that with Salve fighting for Vinesh, there might be a favourable outcome. But who exactly is Harish Salve?
Born into a Marathi family in 1955, Harish Salve is one of India’s most renowned lawyers, practising in the country’s Supreme Court as well as appearing for India in international arbitration matters.
He began his legal career as an intern in 1980 at JB Dadachandji & Co. He worked with Soli Sorabjee, former Attorney General, between 1980 and 1986.
In 1992, he was designated a senior counsel in Supreme Court, and in 1999 became Solicitor General of India. When he was offered a second term in 2004, Salve denied citing “personal reasons”.
He was admitted to the English Bar in 2013 and joined top English barristers’ at Blackstone Chambers later on.
Throughout his legal career, he has represented many high-profile clients and been part of several important cases in the country. For instance, he appeared for Gujarat riots victim Bilkis Bano in 2003, and as a defence counsel in the Aarushi-Hemraj double murder case.
It was Salve that got Bollywood actor Salman Khan out on bail after the actor was handed a sentence of five years in prison in the hit-and-run case of 2002. The superstar was then let off on all charges following Bombay High Court’s decision in December 2015.
Among Salve’s many famous cases is the 2012 Vodafone case against the government. He had helped the telecom company to win a Rs 1,100 crore tax case.
Perhaps one of his biggest moments came in 2019 when he represented India against Pakistan at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Kulbhushan Jadhav case. Jadhav had been captured by Pakistan, who accused him of being a spy and in 2017, a military court gave him the death sentence on charges of “terrorism and espionage”. The same year, India moved ICJ to point out how Pakistan violated the Vienna Convention by not allowing consular access to Jadhav. Agreeing with India’s argument, the ICJ then asked Pakistan to suspend Jadhav’s punishment and grant consular access to India.
- Salve is one of India’s highest-paid lawyers, but in the Jadhav case, he only took a token fee of Rs 1.
What will Salve be fighting for at CAS?
Senior advocate and former Solicitor General of India, Salve will now represent India’s wrestler Vinesh Phogat at the CAS hearing. He will appear virtually, said reports. Earlier, the IOA had moved the sports tribunal against the Olympics’ decision to disqualify the 29-year-old wrestler.
On Wednesday (August 7), news had broken that Phogat had been disqualified from the Games after being a mere 100 grammes overweight — just hours before she was to fight in the gold medal bout. A day later, a heartbroken Phogat also announced her retirement from the sport, telling her mother in a post on X: “Ma, wrestling has won, I have lost. Please forgive me, your dreams and my courage, everything is broken. I don’t have any more strength now. Goodbye wrestling 2001-2024. I shall be indebted to you all. Forgive (me),”
Meanwhile, the IOA filed two appeals with CAS. The first one, which was rejected, was that she be allowed to participate in the final. The other is a demand for a joint silver medal, which has been considered.
According to a Sportstar report, Vinesh’s appeal states: “The excess of 100 g is extremely negligible (representing around 0.1 to 0.2 per cent of the athlete’s weight) and can easily be caused by the bloating of a human body during summer weather, as the heat makes the human body retain more water, scientifically for survival purposes. It can also be due to muscle mass increase as the athlete competed three times on the same day. It can also be caused by the food consumption of the athlete after the competitions to sustain her health and integrity for the demanding competitions.
“The conditions under which she “regained” weight after her first fights clearly show that this was not a case of excess weight providing any advantage whatsoever, but merely the implementation of a classic and essential recovery process. Finally, it should be remembered that the CAS must uphold the fundamental rights of athletes, including the right to respect for their physical integrity.”
The hearing will be taken up today (August 9) at 12.30 pm. However, the verdict in the case may take a few days to be announced.
With inputs from agencies
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English (US) ·