Ashwani Kumar felicitated for completing 50 years at Bar

Hosted by Kumar's juniors, the felicitation ceremony was attended by luminaries, including former Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, three former Chief Justices of India, including TS Thakur, nearly 28 judges of the Supreme Court and the High Court, political heavyweights among others.

Representing the world of politics were former union ministers Murli Manohar Joshi, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Manish Tewari; former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Punjab BJP president Sunil Jakhar, JDU general secretary KC Tyagi, Congress leaders Danish Ali, Rashid Alvi and others.

Speaking at the event, former CJI Thakur lauded Kumar as a leader who transcended the boundaries of his legal vocation to pursue and perfect many other talents.

"We normally see see who have mastered their own field. It's rare to get beyond your own domain and perfect skills across segments. Ashwani Kumar is a man of many talents," Thakur said about the lawyer-author-parliamentarian.

Thakur also hailed Kumar's rise from the youngest senior counsel to law minister of India.

Ashwani Kumar in his remarks reminisced seniors speaking particularly of a lesson in humility he received from former CJI MN Venkatachaliah.

Kumar cited an instance from his time as the senior counsel representing Madhya Pradesh government in the Bhopal gas tragedy matter in the apex court.

"While I was arguing on the compensation to be awarded to victims CJI MN Venkatachaliah asked me how much toxicity was there in one ml of urine. I apologised for my ignorance. He asked the same question again after sometime. During lunch break, I went to the CJI's chamber and told him that I had found his remarks hurtful simply because no lawyer could be expected to know the answer to the question the CJI was asking. The CJI took my point and said even said sorry. Later he again said sorry in the open court -- something he need not have done since we had already spoken privately," said Kumar at the well attended gathering here.