Mahfooz Alam / Patna

Khurshid Alam, Additional Advocate General of Bihar, is known for defending the State against the Chief Election Commissioner of India T N Seshan, whose name sent a chill down the spine of officers dealing with him during the elections. He won the high-profile murder case in which the Patna Mayor was an accused. Again, he made waves in the media when he won a case for Ahmed Ashfaq Karim, Director of Katihar Medical College, and got him released from jail.

Khurshid Alam also runs legal awareness campaigns and provides legal aid to the poor and needy. He is the only Muslim lawyer who won the election of Vice President in Patna Advocate Association twice.

Being a lawyer and fighting for justice are two different things. Khurshid Alam, who practiced in the Patna High Court says he sees justice and helping the weaker sections as the most important work.

He shot to prominence when he defeated the Chief Election Commissioner of India TN Seshan in a court of law. Seshan had ordered that people should deposit their weapons during the elections. Khurshid Alam challenged this order in the Patna High Court. He argued against the Election Commission's order and won the case. This case made headlines around the world at that time as the court ordered the return of the weapons to their owners within 24 hours. Khurshid Alam never looked back.

Khurshid Alam receiving an award

Khurshid Alam was born in 1956 in Kagji Mohalla of Biharsharif in a family of landlords and scholars. At the time of the partition of India, most of his family went to Pakistan, but his father and maternal grandfather decided to stay in India. According to Khurshid Alam, his family has been active in the field of science, literature and politics since the beginning. He said that his grandfather Noor Mohammad used to publish an Urdu newspaper named Ittihad from Bihar during the British rule.

He says that this newspaper is also mentioned in Taqi Rahim's book Jang Azadi (Participation of Muslims of Bihar). Khurshid Alam's father is Sadar Alam. His grandfather Sheikh Ahmed Ali wrote a famous book called Qaumi Masnavi in ​​1912, which the family has recently retrieved from Lucknow Library and republished.

Khurshid Alam says his ancestors had a deep love for knowledge and literature.

Khurshid Alam's mother hailed from West Bengal. She was the niece of Bengal poet Qazi Nazar Islam. Khurshid Alam is the eldest of 10 siblings - five brothers and five sisters. His sister Farzana Alam was the Deputy Mayor of Kolkata. Other sisters live in the US and Canada. Two brothers are abroad, one is in Goa, and one in Bihar Sharif.

Collage of photos from Khurshid Alam's family album

His father died in 1991 and his mother also died after corona. Khurshid Alam married Nikhat Jahan in 1993. He has three sons. One son is a lawyer in the Bombay High Court. The other two sons are studying. Khurshid Alam is the Vice President of Bihar State Skating Association, Vice President of Bihar Social Club and a member of the Governing Body of Katihar Medical College.

Khurshid Alam says that the family was deeply hurt by the partition of India. A famous and learned family was shattered and scattered in the partition. Most of the people went to Pakistan, but his father chose India as he didn't want to part from his motherland at any cost. As the majority of the members left for Pakistan, the remaining ones tried their best to join the nation-building through education.

Khurshid Alam started his primary education in a madrasa and after primary joined the Sugara High School in Bihar Sharif. He passed the matriculation examination from there. "I joined the Nalanda College, Bihar Sharif. At the peak of the JP moment (Named after Jayaprakash Narayan a socialist leader), I joined it with full dedication. I even went to jail twice."

Khurshid Alam and his mother and book published by one of his forefathers

This affected his studies. "I started my education after being released from jail," Khurshid Alam says. He never wanted to become a lawyer; he had dreamed of himself as a doctor. He was impressed with the profession of a doctor, but on the advice of his elders, he joined the law stream at Patna's Commerce College in 1982. Soon after graduating in law, he started practicing as a lawyer in Patna High Court.

Khurshid Alam says, "I started practicing law in Patna High Court in 1989. I worked with the then-prominent lawyer and former minister Shakeel Ahmed Khan. I worked with him for about two years. I started independent practice in 1992."

"Meanwhile, I fought and won many big cases. But 1995 was a big turning point in my life, when I won the case against the Election Commission of India and the court's decision became famous all over the world. It made headlines and I became famous overnight."

He said that the landmark decision of the court was included in the best decisions of the year. He said that this decision is also available on the net in the name of Khurshid Alam vs Election Commission of India. He says he never looked back after this.

Khurshid Alam with Jayaptakash Narayan

"I got many important, and VVIP cases, and I continued to win cases and taste success. One of these was a high-profile case of Patna Mayor Kishan Murari. He was involved in a murder case. It was a complicated case. I won it."

Katihar Medical College director Ahmed Ashfaq Karim was arrested in 2014. His bail was rejected several times. "Finally, I took up the case after others had failed. "I got him bail and he was released from jail. I have similarly helped many of my clients. I am very happy that I have also helped so many people get justice."

Khurshid Alam has been the Additional Advocate General of the Bihar Government in Patna High Court since 2016. "Advocacy is a good profession," he declares while speaking with Awaz the voice.

He says the advocacy "protects the dignity of people and helps them get out of their sorrows."

"In today's times, I feel that there should be a lawyer in every family." Khurshid Alam walks the talk as two of his sons are lawyers." His elder son practices in the Bombay High Court. He says that due to rampant lack of legal knowledge, people get stuck in problems. Today there is a need to make one child a lawyer in every family, he says.

Khurshid Alam also fights cases for the poor and needy and runs a campaign to create legal awareness in Muslim society. He is invited for lectures by many Muslim organizations. He not only participates in programs to impart legal knowledge but also runs legal awareness programs for the masses.

Khurshid Alam says that he is also a member of the central committee of the All India Lawyers Council, which provides legal aid to the poor. The Council, he says, has got many people released from jail.

"Poor people do not know the law and have no money for litigation. Therefore, we help those who are financially weak and in trouble."

Khurshid Alam says though he faced no financial strain during his studies, he never ignored it. "no one can be successful without hard work and continuous effort," he says.

Awards and accolades for Khurshid Alam

"When I became a lawyer, my focus was on advocacy. Initially I fought criminal law cases, then civil and other cases."

He says that today he fights all kinds of cases. He is of firm belief that every family must have a lawyer.

Khurshid Alam has also appealed to Muslims to pay special attention to the education of children.

Khurshid Alam also dabbled in politics. After joining JP Moment and going to jail, he also tried his luck in politics. Khurshid Alam says that he had good relations with former Prime Minister Chandrashekhar. He was in the Congress party and later joined the Left party.

In 2000, he contested the Bihar Assembly elections from Islampur on a CPI(ML) ticket but lost. Soon he left politics for his profession.

Khurshid Alam's family background has been such that he has been interested in social and welfare work since the beginning. Khurshid Alam says that he is working with various Muslim organizations to bring legal awareness. He provides legal aid to everyone regardless of religion and nationality. He says that his family has been a joint family for 10 generations. Khurshid Alam also runs several schools in Bihar Sharif which are looked after by his younger brother. This school provides free education to orphan children.

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He said that Sadar Alam Memorial School has been established in the name of my father, where the best education and training is provided to the children. Many B.Ed colleges are also running. He says that due to the good services of the educational institution, recently the Governor of Bihar has honored him. Khurshid Alam believes that today society needs education the most, he says that every possible effort should be made to make education popular at the social level.