NEW DELHI: Harish Salve, one of India’s top lawyers, on Tuesday said that hours before Sushma Swaraj's demise, she had asked him to collect his fee of Re 1 that he had charged for the case against Pakistan involving Kulbhushan Jadhav.

While talking to a news channel Times Now, Salve said "I am in a state of shock. I spoke to Sushma Swaraj at 8.50 pm and she asked me to meet her tomorrow and collect the fee of Rs 1."

"I said, of course, I have to come to collect that precious fee" he further added.

Harish Salve, one of India’s top lawyers, had charged only Rs 1 as the fee for fighting India’s case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against the death penalty given to Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav by a Pakistani military court.

This was disclosed by former external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj in response to a tweet by one Sanjeev Goyal, who said India could have got any good lawyer with much less fee than what Salve must have charged for fighting the case.

“Not fair. #HarishSalve has charged us Rs. 1/- as his fee for this case,” Swaraj tweeted.




The Pakistan government had in its budget document presented in the National Assembly the last year said that it paid Rs 20 crore to UK-based barrister Khawar Qureshi, who is representing the country in the Hague. A Cambridge University law graduate, Qureshi was the youngest lawyer fighting a case in the ICJ.

Salve was India’s lead attorney at the ICJ hearing on the case of Indian national Jadhav. Jadhav, 49, a retired Indian Navy officer, was sentenced to death by the Pakistani military court on charges of "espionage and terrorism" after a closed trial in April 2017. His sentencing evoked a sharp reaction in India.

On Twitter, where the BJP stalwart was quite active, had congratulated Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the government revoked the special status for Jammu and Kashmir, saying "I was waiting to see this day in my lifetime".

Just hours before her demise, taking to Twitter in the evening, Swaraj said: "@narendramodi ji - Thank you Prime Minister. Thank you very much. I was waiting to see this day in my lifetime."
This last tweet of Swaraj and the words used by her left scores of her supporters and admirers in shock and grief.


This was her second tweet in as many days lauding the government over the move to revoke special status for Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcate the border state into two Union territories.

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