LITIGANTS, LAWYERS AND JUDGES continues...

The railway freight from Karachi to Pathankot itself cost five times the price of the plants. Unforunately these plants did not do well at Pathankot and the whole adventure was a complete failure.

When I attended the Mahajan Conference at Jammu in 1935, I went through the ceremony of exchanging turbans with my old friend, Sardar Khem Chand. This exchange of Pagries declared that we were as good as blood brothers on account of the affection we had for each other.

An interesting murder case in which I appeared in the High Court that year concerned Salo Rajput of Rehlu. He shot a person with his gun and then concealed the gun in the trunk of a tree and disappeared. There was no direct evidence in the case except his pointing out the place where the gun was supposed to have been concealed. The gun was found there. I argued before the High Court that it could not be said with certainty that it was he who had committed the murder. The prosecution had not established that the murder had been committed with that gun. The gun could have been concealed in the tree trunk by him to escape punishment under the Arms Act as he was not a licence holder. On circumstantial evidence alone no conviction can be based unless it is incompatible with the innocence of the accused. The court accepted my plea and Salo escaped the gallows.

Another interesting case in which I was engaged was entrusted to me by Nawab Ahmad Yar Khan Dalulatana, father of Mumtaz Daultana, long a Muslim League leader in Pakistan. Nawab Ahmad Yar Khan’s lands and a canal owned by him had been acquired by the Government. The case turned round the quantum of compensation payable. There was a large number of keekar trees in the area. The Government had assessed these trees at Re. 1 or Rs. 2 per tree. Our claim was that the value of these trees in no case should be assessed at less than Rs. 20 per tree.

to be continued....