Advocate for a better Kolkata

Siddharth Mitra is every bit a successful barrister and specializes in corporate law, arbitration and company matters. Among the high-profile briefs that he currently holds are that of the Tatas on the Singur land and The Chatterjee Group on the stake control in Haldia Petrochemicals. But there is another, a more passionate side to Mitra: he does pro bono work for the city on environmental and heritage issues.
No matter how tied up he may be in corporate cases, Mitra always finds time if a case concerning the city touches his heart. It may be to do with preventing a heritage building in north Kolkata from being demolished or a wetland on the city's fringes from being encroached. And then there are instances when he has helped out individuals who cannot afford a lawyer in their fight for justice.
"Our association with Mitra goes back to 1991 when he was a junior to Sudipto Sarkar whom we had approached in the East Kolkata Wetlands (EKW) case. Since then, we have turned to him on environmental matters on several occasions and he has never said no," gushes Bonani Kakkar of PUBLIC.
Mitra recently argued passionately - and successfully - for the preservation of marshlands in Dankuni that were a favourite resting ground for migratory birds but were not designated wetlands.
His first tryst with pro bono work was with heritage preservation. He took up a case for Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (Intach) and stopped demolition of old buildings in north Kolkata. That was in the 1980s - when he had returned to India after picking up his bar degree from Lincoln's Inn, London.
Following the EKW case, he took a keen interest in environmental matters. Kakkar recalls: "One look at the strapping young man in Sarkar's office and I knew here was an intense, no-nonsense committed fighter (incidentally, Muhammad Ali is one of his heroes). He turned out to be extremely thorough with his brief and incredibly reliable. When he says yes to a case, he will fight to the finish."
This was especially evident in another case that concerned the state government's proposal to replace the old bungalow of Mr Camac with a 16-storied secretariat building. Mitra argued - perhaps a path-breaking argument - that the government as custodian of the city's future could not justify ignoring the carrying capacity of the street in terms of the increased load on services such as water, garbage, traffic, etc. This concept, borrowed from his exposure to environment literature, resulted in the court reducing the height of the proposed building by 50%. It was, as it often is, a David vs Goliath situation: the pro bono lawyer in one corner of the ring opposing an army of senior advocates on the other side. He seems to relish punishing above his weight.
In the Dankuni wetlands case, his ability to combine argument with passion again prevailed: the court was not initially inclined to rule in favour of the petitioner seeking the protection of a land that did not have the tag of a wetland. But so persuasive were Mitra's arguments that he was able to establish that land records weren't necessarily reliable.
"Even the most successful doctor sees some patients for free. He does it for society. If I feel for a cause, I do it. It may be legal advice at times, not litigation. It gives one more satisfaction doing these matters than the professional ones. When I work pro bono, I believe in the issue," says Mitra.
Centre for Development & Environment director A K Ghosh said lawyers like Mitra were critical in protecting the environment. "Pro bono work requires special commitment and a personal connection. It is only when a lawyers feels strongly for something - it is environment in Mitra's case - that he or she takes up such briefs and argues the case passionately," he remarked.
Fortunately for the city, some of the causes Mitra has believed in and fought for will leave real and long-lasting benefits for generations to come.