Hemant Batra

Hemant Batra (born 15 August 1967) is an Indian lawyer. TV anchor/Host, public speaker, commentator (law & public policy), mentor, and legal counsel. He was the co-founder and counsel at Kaden Boriss Global, an alliance and forum of independent and autonomous law firms and legal enterprises. Hemant holds a position as the Secretary General of SAARCLAW (South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation in Law). SAARCLAW is a regional Apex body of SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation).
Hemant Batra withdrew from all active roles in Kaden Boriss law firm in 2015 and formally quit the law firm in 2016. He now independently practises law as an arguing counsel in the Indian Supreme Court and Delhi High Court. He is seen now in the roles of arbitrator, mediator, conciliator, tutor of law and public policy. He is authoring books for Eastern Book Company. Hemant has recently merged his practice with India's leading and topmost law firm, namely, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co(SAM). In the law firm, he heads the new vertical of New Ventures & Growth where he is responsible for the expansion and growth of SAM geographically, territorially, and professionally. As per industry sources, his role is working closely with the founders Shardul S. Shroff and Pallavi S. Shroff
Batra joined the advisory board of the pivotals, the first ever stakeholders engagement platform. In his role as a policy specialist and global business lawyer, he was invited to join the leadership team of a well known not for profit organization.
Though not as a Secretary-General of SAARCLAW but taking advantage of his standing in South Asia including Pakistan, he took up the issue of grant of mercy to the Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh (now deceased). Batra has done substantial work for ensuring legal rights of people living with HIV and key populations at higher risk of exposure to HIV.
Considered as one of the prominent authorities on cross-border issues connected with the legal profession, he was invited by the Harvard Law School to share his thoughts with senior students on the Future Market for Corporate Legal Services in India.
He has always mooted for opening up of the legal profession in India be it allowing foreign lawyers as well as showcasing. According to him medicine and law were once on the same footing as "noble professions" and as the corporatization of the medical profession has been permitted, the restrictions on lawyers are unjustified. Three leading publications captured his interview, namely, India Today, Daily Mail UK and Tehelka.
He recently mooted the idea of large scale repeal of laws. He supported and complimented the landmark initiative taken by the Narendra Modi Government in India in repealing obsolete laws. He also emphasized that repeal of laws is as significant as the passage of new laws. He was one of the first set of legal experts who covered the legal aspects connected with Coronavirus or COVID-19.
As chairman of the jury, Batra has propagated a policy change in the way businesses are run and managed. According to him, a successful business goes beyond money-making. Societal responsibilities are key to successful businesses.
He highlighted and favoured the policy of Narendra Modi BJP Government in India regarding the enhancement of traffic violation fines. A public policy expert and commentator Hemant Batra opines that Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 is a phenomenal economic law and public policy reform of the last decade, which provided a revolutionary shift of earlier law from a defaulting debtor controlling assets until resolution or liquidation, to the creditors in command of the NPAs during resolution or liquidation. He mooted regulating the cryptocurrency market rather than completely banning it. He favoured following IMF and FATF guidelines in this regard.
Origin and background
Hemant was born in Hisar located in the Indian state of Haryana, in a Punjabi Hindu Arora Family to Veena Batra and G.L Batra who was the Additional Secretary in the Indian parliament and chairman of the Haryana State Public Service Commission. In 1988 he graduated with bachelor's degree in Humanities and in 1991 received his Bachelor of Law degree from Chandigarh Law faculty in Panjab University. Hemant Batra and his wife Preeti Wahi Batra, Hemant has a fetish for electronic gadgets and changes them every six months.
He was re-elected as the secretary general of SAARCLAW on 12 April 2014 in Kathmandu when India and Pakistan came together to propose his name and Bangladesh/Bhutan seconded it.
Criticism
It is noticed that Hemant has been unnecessarily critical of newer legislation and even verdicts passed by courts of law. As Secretary General of SAARCLAW, he made a controversial public statement that in south Asian region the parliamentarians were not able to meet up expectations of their people.
He made a controversial statement in a leading English newspaper The Tribune by expressing concern over the alleged ill-treatment of Mr Justice Rana Bhagwandas, the first Hindu to be appointed Acting Chief Justice of Pakistan, and his family members by immigration authorities at the Wagah border on 29 March 2006. The report reflects many gaps in laws in South Asia and is very women-specific and specific gender-based thereby creating complete dissension amongst gender. This report has come under heavy criticism for being lope-sided.
Batra just wants to be in news by speaking on contentious and critically controversial issues. In 2007, he had made a sweeping allegation against residents of big cities stating that they had a load of unaccounted cash monies which they were investing in far-off agriculture lands located in remote states. He said that their motive was to eventually blend their black monies with agricultural income. He branded such people as money launderers. Batra was also quoted in The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting for having said that "India is today the most isolated country within its region." This definitely was a strong comment against India's foreign policy.
During the 10th SAARC Chief Justices Conference, Hemant Batra made a sweeping statement regarding SAARCLAW's landmark achievement in getting a 1 Million US$ grant from Asian Development Bank. Some delegates from Bangladesh were critical of SAARCLAW getting into a subordinate position to ADB because of this grant.
He recently supported the move by Narendra Modi BJP Government in India regarding massive enhancement in fines and penalties related to traffic violations. Whereas generally in India people have been opposed to such arbitrary enhancement on the grounds that India is a developing country and this new measure will lead to more corruption on the Indian streets. Batra on the contrary supports BJP Government on the ground that even the neighbouring country Sri Lanka has enhanced penalties almost ten folds.<ref name="asiancommunitynews.com"/>

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