On the Bench continues....

The Court is also to be congratulated on getting the services of a first class civil lawyer. How pleased your father would have been had he been still alive. My wife joins me in congratulating you and sending salam to Mrs. Mahajan.” The last one that I would mention is a letter from Sir Varadachari who was then a judge of the Federal Court. “I read with satisfaction the press announcement relating to your appointment to the High Court. From your personal point of view, I do not suppose there is much to congratulate you on but I am sure that the High Court and the country deserve to be congratulated. It must, however, be some satisfaction to have some opportunity, however circumscribed it may be, of serving one’s country. Let me hope that you will have many years of useful activity and when time comes for you to relinquish office, your grateful countrymen of those days will show better appreciation than seems to be the case today.”

When I took over there were the usual references and felicitations on behalf of the Bar and I made suitable replies. The stream of parties did not dry up for about a year.

I sat on the bench with Sir Trevor Harries on the very first day. It was his custom to deliver the judgment of the court immediately after the hearing was over. He would deliver the judgment in the first case, in his turn his brother judge delivered the next. I had considerable apprehensions about my capacity to deliver judgment in the open court though oral arguments at the Bar had been a matter of routine with me. To my surprise. I found that I was able to do so without difficulty. Immediately on the close of the hearing I dictated judgements in several difficult cases in the presence of the Bar, litigants and the Chief Justice in open Court.


to be continued......


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