A. G. Noorani


Abdul Ghafoor Majeed Noorani, known popularly as A. G. Noorani, is an Indian lawyer, constitutional expert and political commentator. He has practised as an advocate in the Supreme Court of India and in the Bombay High Court.

Early life and education

Noorani was born in Bombay in 1930. He attended a Jesuit school, St. Mary's, and got his law degree from Government Law College, Mumbai.

Career

His columns have appeared in various publications, including Hindustan Times, The Hindu, Dawn, The Statesman, Frontline, Economic and Political Weekly and Dainik Bhaskar.
He is the author of a number of books including: The Kashmir Question, Badruddin Tyabji Ministers' Misconduct, Brezhnev's Plan for Asian Security, The Presidential System, The Trial of Bhagat Singh, Constitutional Questions in India and The RSS and the BJP: A Division of Labour. He has also authored the biographies of Badruddin Tyabji and Dr Zakir Hussain.
He has defended Sheikh Abdullah of Kashmir during his long period of detention. He appeared in the Bombay High Court for former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Karunanidhi against the latter's main political rival J. Jayalalitha.

Publications

The Kashmir Dispute 1947-2012

In a scholarly review of The Kashmir Dispute 1947-2012, Tooba Khurshid from the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad notes that the "eminent lawyer, historian and political expert" has endeavored to give an "accurate account" of the Kashmir dispute. Khurshid points out that the book is a collection of documents, both archival and contemporary, as well as speeches and interviews and notes that Noorani has supported his arguments with reference to a large array of documents to provide the historical context of the political dispute. Khurshid highly recommends the book for researchers and also praises it for its reference to a large number of archived documents. Khurshid classifies the book as "solid, scholarly research" and recommends it also to policy makers because of its considerable use of classified documents.