Adish Aggarwala

Adish C. Aggarwala is an Indian senior advocate, jurist, bar leader and author. He served as Chairman of All India Bar Association, and President of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) during 2023–2024, after previously serving as its vice-president.

He is also President of the International Council of Jurists., in which capacity he has led jurists' delegations and made representations concerning public and international-law issues.

Career In 2024, the Supreme Court of India marked electoral bonds as "unconstitutional", and requested the State Bank of India to comply with SC and release details regarding the origins of bonds. In March 2024, Aggarwala, under the office of the President of the Supreme Court Bar Association, submitted a request to the President of India, Droupadi Murmu arguing for an intervention on her end. This was met with a condemnation by the SCBA, arguing that the "members of the committee have neither authorised the President (Aggarwala) to write any such letter nor do they subscribe to his views as expressed therein."

In 2015, Aggarwala published Narendra Modi - A Charismatic & Visionary Statesman (with Sarah J. Marchington), which contains forewords from several Bharatiya Janata Party and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh members.

Legal career and bar leadership Before his election as SCBA President in May 2023, Aggarwala had served as vice-president of the association.

In April 2020, acting as ICJ President, he filed a complaint before the United Nations Human Rights Council seeking an inquiry and reparations from China in relation to the COVID-19 outbreak. The allegations contained in the complaint were claims made by Aggarwala and the organisation and should not be stated as established facts.

Lal Chowk initiatives and Pakistan-related work In June 2023, Aggarwala announced that a delegation of retired judges and senior jurists led by him would unfurl the Tricolour at Lal Chowk, Srinagar. He said that the initiative was intended to convey his assessment of conditions in Jammu and Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370 and to counter Pakistan's narrative on Kashmir.

In July 2022, amid public allegations concerning Pakistani journalist Nusrat Mirza, Aggarwala said that Mirza had neither been invited to nor attended the 2010 International Conference of Jurists on International Terrorism and Human Rights at Vigyan Bhawan, while former Vice-president Hamid Ansari had attended that conference. Aggarwala called for an inquiry concerning reports about a different 2009 conference. Ansari denied having invited or met Mirza.

Supreme Court Bar Association presidency and public interventions In March 2024, after the Supreme Court struck down the electoral-bonds scheme, Aggarwala wrote to President Droupadi Murmu seeking a presidential reference. The SCBA Executive Committee stated that it had not authorised the letter, did not subscribe to the views expressed in it and condemned what it described as an attempt to overreach or undermine the Supreme Court.

In January 2024, ahead of the consecration of the Ram temple at Ayodhya, Aggarwala requested the Chief Justice of India to advise benches not to pass adverse orders because lawyers and litigants could be absent on 22 January. The available reports concern court administration and do not identify him as counsel in the Supreme Court's Ram Janmabhoomi title litigation.

Aggarwala publicly supported the enactment of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and Bharatiya Sakshya Sanhita, and welcomed the Supreme Court's December 2023 judgment concerning Article 370.

Writing and publications Aggarwala co-authored Narendra Modi: Harbinger of Prosperity & Apostle of World Peace with American writer Elisabeth Horan. The work was released in 2020 in ten foreign languages - English, Arabic, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin, Russian and Spanish - and ten Indian languages - Hindi, Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Marathi, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu.

In 2015, Aggarwala and British writer Sarah J. Marchington co-authored Narendra Modi: A Charismatic & Visionary Statesman. A revised 672-page edition was launched in 2018.

His later work Modi's Niti Shastra: The World's His Oyster examines governance, legislative and criminal-law reforms, welfare policy, Article 370, triple talaq and the Ram temple. The final manuscript identifies Aggarwala as the author and contains a message by Union Home Minister Amit Shah. A publisher catalogue, ISBN or independent review should be cited when available.

Selected works The Constitution of India Narendra Modi: A Charismatic & Visionary Statesman (with Sarah J. Marchington) Narendra Modi: Harbinger of Prosperity & Apostle of World Peace (with Elisabeth Horan) Modi's Niti Shastra: The World's His Oyster