Upon graduating, Palkhivala applied for a position as lecturer at Bombay University, but was not awarded the post. Soon found himself trying to obtain admission to institutions of higher learning to further his academic career. It being late in the term, most courses were closed, and he enrolled at Government Law College, Bombay, where he discovered that he had a gift for unravelling the intricacies of jurisprudence. He was an excellent barrister at his time.

Nani Palkhivala was called to the bar in 1946 and served in the chambers of the legendary Sir Jamshedji Behramji Kanga in Bombay. He quickly gained a reputation as an eloquent and articulate barrister, and was often the center of attention in court, where students of law and younger members of the bar association would flock to watch him. His excellent court craft and an extraordinary ability to recall barely known facts rendered him an irresistible force.

N Palkhivala’s initial forté was commercial and tax law. Together with Sir Jamshedji, he authored what was then and still is today an authoritative work: The Law and Practice of Income Tax. Palkhivala was 30 years old at the time of the first printing. Sir Jamshedji later admitted that the credit for this work belonged exclusively to Nani.

Palkhivala’s first participation in a case of constitutional significance occurred in 1951, where he served as junior counsel in the case Nusserwanji Balsara vs. State of Bombay [(1951) Bom 210], assisting the esteemed Sir Noshirwan Engineer in challenging several provisions of the Bombay Prohibition Act. Before the year was out, Palkhivala was arguing cases himself, but his first case of constitutional importance (a challenge of the validity of land requisition acts) was lost before the Bombay High Court.

By 1954 however, barely 10 years after his admission to the bar, Palkhivala was arguing before the Supreme Court. It was in this, his first, case before that court (concerning the interpretation of Article 29(2) and Article 30 of the Indian Constitution, which regulate the rights of religious minorities) that he first articulated his (later) famous statements on the inviolate nature of the constitution.

In 1975, shortly after the imposition of the Indian Emergency, a bench of 5 judges was hastily assembled, and presided over by Chief Justice A.N. Ray to determine the degree to which amendments installed by the government of Indira Gandhi were restricted by the Basic Structure theory. On November 10 and 11, the team of civil libertarian barristers – led by Palkhivala – continuously argued against the Union government’s application for reconsideration of the Kesavananda decision. Some of the judges accepted his argument on the very first day, the others on the next; by the end of the second day, the Chief Justice was reduced to a minority of one. On the morning of November 12, Chief Justice Ray tersely pronounced that the bench was dissolved, and the judges rose. In effect, the doctrine was applied to the 39th Amendment of 1975, which attempted, among other provisions, to pass legislative judgment over the 1971 election of Indira Gandhi.

He was a strong proponent of the rights of freedom of expression and freedom of the press. In an attempt to stifle dissenting opinion, the central government imposed import controls on newsprint in 1972. In the case before the Supreme Court [Bennett Coleman & Co. vs Union of India, (1972) 2 SCC 788], Palkhivala argued that newsprint was more than just a general commodity: “Newsprint does not stand on the same footing as steel. Steel will yield products of steel. Newsprint will manifest whatever is thought of by man.”

In the 1970s, state legislation (education is a subject covered by the Concurrent list in the Seventh Schedule of the Indian Constitution – i.e., both central and state governments can legislate on it) was increasingly encroaching on the rights of minority educational institutions which are protected by articles in the Indian constitution. In a landmark case [Ahmedabad St. Xavier’s College Society vs. State of Gujarat, (1974) 1 SCC 717], Palkhivala argued that the extant right of a state government to administer an academic institution did not extend to a right to mal-administer. The majority of the nine-judge bench upheld his contention, significantly strengthening the rights of the minorities.

Although Nani Palkhivala was one of the leading interpreters of constitutional law and a most ardent defender of the civil liberties guaranteed by the constitution, his legacy also includes the afore mentioned authoritative book, The Law and Practice of Income Tax, which he co-authored with his mentor Sir Jamshedji Behramji Kanga.

Although anyone who deals with the convoluted mess that is the Indian tax code will invariably regard the work as a primary reference, the tome has also secured international recognition and served as a tax law draft guide at the International Monetary Fund. The first edition was published in 1950 when Palkhivala was only 30 years old, and is still in print today (10th edition in 2014). Sir Jamshedji, who is listed first as author, gracefully acknowledged that the credit belongs to Palkhivala.

Former Attorney-General Soli J. Sorabjee, Nani’s friend and colleague for many years, recalls: “His talent in expounding the subject was matched by his genius in explaining the intricacies of the Budget to thousands of his listeners. His famous Annual Budget speeches had humble beginnings in 1958 in a small hall of an old hotel called Green Hotel in Bombay. He spoke without notes and reeled off facts and figures from memory for over an hour keeping his audience in rapt attention.”

Palkhivala received a great deal of recognition from academics, academic institutions and the government. In 1963, Palkhivala was offered a seat in the Supreme Court, but declined. In 1968, he was offered the position of AttorneyGeneral by Govinda Menon, then the Law Minister in the Congress Government.

Nani Palkhivala was appointed Indian Ambassador to the United States in 1977 by the Janata government (the first nonCongress Government in India) headed by Morarji Desai and served in the capacity till 1979. He received honorary doctorates from Princeton University, Rutgers University, Lawrence University, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Annamalai University, Ambedkar Law University and the University of Mumbai. In the last years of his life, Nani Palkhivala was severely affected by what may have been Alzheimer’s disease. Nani was taken critically ill on December 7, 2002, and taken to Jaslok Hospital in Mumbai. He died on Wednesday, December 11, 2002. He was 82.