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Mr. Kirit N. Raval, was the chief driving
force behind the establishment and also the initial nurturing of the
Gujarat National Law University. When the University was inaugurated
on 17th July 2004, with 160 students selected on the basis of an all-India Entrance
Test, it was the beginning of a dream come true for him.
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It was in 1998 that he had envisioned GNLU, organized and established the Indian
Institute of Legal Studies Society along with a group of like-minded people, and
began persuading the Government of the day to establish a National Law School in
Gujarat. Thanks to his steadfast endeavours and ready Government support, the GNLU
Act was passed unanimously in 2003. He was in fact the architect of the Act.
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Born on 12th September 1952 in Ahmedabad, as the eldest son of the Late Mr. Narendraprasad
U. Raval, Kiritbhai was a brilliant student throughout. He passed B.Com in first
division, and did his MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. He
was a 1st Rank, gold medalist L.L.B from Gujarat University in 1974.
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He began his professional career as a Management Consultant, specializing in management
appraisal of existing management structures. By January 1975, however, he decided
that legal practice was his calling. From then on, his was meteoric rise in the
legal profession that took him to pinnacles of glory and success.
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A well respected legal practitioner, and a well known specialist in corporate law,
Mr. Raval was appointed Additional Solicitor-General of India in 1998 and Solicitor-General
of India on 5th November 2002 he was then the youngest Solicitor-General, India
ever had.
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He was a rare combination of a visionary, a jurist as well as a practitioner. He
was endowed with a sharp intellect that equipped him with far-sightedness and a
ready sense of anticipation of problems that were likely to beset his projects,
and indeed gifted with the knack of finding quick answers to them, as if by reflex
action. His decisions were quick and spontaneous. At once he had one eye in the
sky on the stars but another glued to the road. In profession, he combined both
policy perception and legal technique in the right measure. He placed emphasis on
pragmatism tempered by principles. He was good at assessing people and their worth.
He was impatient with mediocrity and frivolity. He had a straight and unhypocritical
style, with an intense sense of purpose.
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While practicing before the Supreme Court of India and other judicial/quasi-judicial
bodies, he has been an active participant in the evolution of Jurisprudence in a
large number of trend-setting, even if at times politically charged, cases. His
involvement with commercial arbitrations often took him to foreign shores to London,
to Geneva.
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His untimely death is and shall remain an irreparable loss for GNLU. We shall, however,
strive to make this university into a living monument of Kiritbhai’s life mission
for Gujarat, and for the Nation. His dream must be realized, and he shall continue
to inspire us. GNLU celebrates his memory and the dream he dreamt.
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GNLU began the annual Kiritbhai Raval Memorial Lectures on 12 September, 2005 to
pay tribute to the great visionary.
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