An ode to Sanjay Singhvi, for whom life was an unwavering commitment to labour justice

I FIRST MET SANJAY SINGHVI when he was a student in St Xavier’s College, Bombay and I was a young lawyer eager to defend the human rights of people. He and his fellow colleagues had organised the canteen workers in the college to demand fair wages. As a consequence, one of their fellow colleagues Ravindra Hazari was rusticated from the college and not allowed to complete his undergraduate studies. Most of the students were upper class including Sanjay himself, who came from, what we today call, a “legacy lawyers” family.

His father was K.K. Singhvi , a well known labour lawyer of Bombay, a member of the Communist Party of India and part of a traditional community of lawyers which we do not see today. Sanjay, while picking up the best from his father, chose his own path in life, being a lawyer and a trade unionist.  

But to come back to his college days, let me tell you about his gang of friends who continued to hang together throughout life. One of those happy students was Rayan Karanjawala who went on to found one of Delhi’s most sought after law firms, while his fellow students stayed on in Bombay. Suddenly my office in No. 6 Stock Exchange building was buzzing with students, demanding justice for Ravindra Hazari. For me their enthusiasm to fight for fair wages for the canteen workers and for their own rights was sufficient to get into the good fight. There were no precedents to go by. I was told that no one had successfully challenged rustication by a college, much less have a student reinstated. We were here dealing with the most prestigious college in Bombay run by Jesuits and the most sought after one. 

To our good luck in a suit we filed in the City Civil Court in Bombay, the principal of the school was summoned for cross examination and there were the students in full strength watching their principal being cross examined with delight. Sanjay was one of the students in court enjoying the show. We won the case, Ravi was reinstated. Sanjay and Ravi both went on to become lawyers, each true to their calling in life and each in their different ways fighting for the rights of the workers. 

On one occasion, Sanjay got beaten up by the police while organising a demonstration and those were the days when no one talked about police atrocities. They were just taken on quietly. But neither Sanjay nor I belonged to that category. So off we went with a petition under Article 226 to the High Court and to our good luck, the case was heard by the late Justice Lentin. Stiff as an Englishman but soft as a child, he said to me “Miss Jaising, but you must admit that he has been on the wrong side of the law often.“ To which I replied, “Yes, but even such a person cannot be beaten up by the police. He may be arrested but not beaten.” Once again we won the case and the police were directed to make amends. 

I lost contact with Sanjay as time moved on. I rejoiced when he was designated a senior by the High Court. I followed his work as a fellow traveller on the road to labour justice. He famously argued against the validity of the law which extended working hours for factory workers beyond twelve hours a day and won the fundamental issue of  limited hours of work for the working class. Perhaps that was the last of his prominently covered cases. 

Sanjay, too, belonged to a disappearing class of labour lawyers who did not represent management for ideological reasons. Today it is fashionable to say: “I will take any case that comes my way.”  It is the cab rank rule but some of us make choices and he made his choices regarding which side of the line he wanted to be on. A friend, who is also a lawyer for management, told me, “He made life hell for employers, but that is what is needed. These people will never change when it comes to the rights of workers.“

Sanjay will be much missed for more reasons than one. He was cheerful and loved his cycling. He loved food, wine and music. Jane Cox, his life companion, has our support giving up her own home plans to come and work in India for the working class. She has been an author at The Leaflet for our May Day issues and we offer her our support to continue the good fight.