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When the information arrived at the senior advocate's home, there was stunned silence. Then family members broke out into whoops of joy. But the man at the centre of attention says his initial reaction on hearing the news was feeling humbled.

Fali Sam Nariman is the first Indian to be bestowed the prestigious Justice Prize awarded by the Peter Gruber Foundation.

The Foundation recently established three international awards for human achievement -- each with a cash prize of $150,000 and a gold medal -- to be presented annually in the realms of cosmology, genetics and justice.

The citation reads: 'The Honourable Fali S Nariman, member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha, and senior advocate, Supreme Court, has been selected by a distinguished panel of peers to receive the 2002 Justice Prize of the Peter Gruber Foundation.'

"Reactions are always difficult," says Nariman, one of India's leading constitutional lawyers. "It (getting the award) is a humbling experience. I have always believed in life that nothing you receive should go to your head. Otherwise, you become a very poor individual.

"Keeping that in mind, it is an honour which I hope is deserved and which I hope will be accepted by all concerned," adds the veteran jurist.

The award will be presented on September 22, at Richmond, Virginia, where the fourth United States Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall was born in 1755. "I regard this as a special honour," he says.

The advisory board that selected Nariman comprised judges from Canada, France, India, Morocco, South Africa, the United States and Zimbabwe.

For this year's justice prize, the foundation said it was 'honouring exceptional leadership in the legal community of the diverse nation of India.'

Last year, the award in the same category went to former chief justice of the Zimbabwean Supreme Court Anthony Gubbay for upholding the rule of law and the independence of that nation's judiciary.

Nariman, who was born January 10, 1929, at Rangoon in Burma, began practicing law in 1950. He has been a Supreme Court lawyer since 1972. Unlike many Indians, he does not necessarily believe that the past was better than today.

"We always like to look back in every activity and say the people before us were greater than the persons of today. But I think it has something to do with perception. Whenever there is distance, it lends fondness to the view. And if there is something you grow up with, you tend to criticize it," he says.

"I find that both in 1972 and 2002, people have been critical of judges and judgments as they are today," he says, adding, "I see very little difference. Some judges have been taller than others. The law of equality law doesn't apply to lawyers or judges or doctors and so on. People somehow tend to have preferences not because they happen to be a favourite but because they dispense a particular form of justice which is the need of the country."

He cites the examples of Supreme Court Justice V R Krishna Iyer, Chief Justice P N Bhagwati and Chief Justice Y V Chandrachud as great judges. "But we have also judges who will be considered great once they step down," Nariman points out.

Sometime ago, Nariman concurred with a former chief justice who said there was 20 per cent corruption in the judiciary.

"I don't know how the former chief justice got the impression but it is true that corruption is creeping in. I think the idea was to make people (in the legal fraternity) know they have to be careful because persons cannot afford (to be corrupt) when they take up the mantle of a judge," he points out.

The fact that people are aware of it "and something is being done about it is a good thing," Nariman points out.

However, he says he prefers a judicial commission as in the US, comprising judges, who look into matters of corruption in the judiciary. In this way, people with genuine grievances could ventilate them in an appropriate forum.

Two years ago he recalls he, as a member of the Indo-US-British Forum, visited America. There, he met a judge of the federal court in Washington who adjudicated on the alleged misconduct of a colleague. The judge sat in court and determined the misconduct, which was then published as a judgment.

"It is quite remarkable. But that sort of thing we will have to develop over the years," he says.

He describes the issue of minority rights under the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government as "very burning."

"We have lost the spirit of both tolerance and idealism that inspired the makers of our Constitution. That is a matter of great sorrow to me," he laments.

Refusing to name any party or politician, he says, "In my opinion, the philosophy of hate, which is now permeating all sections of society, is not only rampant in India but in many parts of the world."

Pointing to the antagonism among various communities, Nariman says, "All this is a phenomenon that has to be cured. I think the need of the hour is to have a man like the Mahatma in India today. We don't have a Gandhi, this is why all this is happening."

One of the country's foremost legal eagles indulges in "desultory" reading to catch up with what is happening around the world.

"Anything other than law, which is your main occupation, would be desultory reading," he quips.

"Be optimistic!" he said, by way of a message to our readers. "Despite all the problems we have, our greatest weakness is our size and our greatest strength is also the size of our country. We must never disintegrate because I have no doubt that with a little bit of vision, our country will go places and be considered as one of the most outstanding countries in the world."

Design: Lynette Menezes