Chief Justice of India continues....

“With a heart of gold Mr. Justice Mahajan has a rough exterior. He is frank and outspoken and at times blunt, though sincere. Himself hardworkking he cannot excuse the lazy and pusillanimous. He likes straight arguments, no dilly-dallying. I have seen him pull up erring counsels. ‘You are wasting your client’s money and this Court’s precious time: he told a lawyer the other day. Hair-splitting technicalities of law which generally hamper the progress of justice do not appeal to him. They annoy him on the other hand.

He expects the counsel appearing before him to study the briefs with the thoroughness expected of them. He himself reads his papers so minutely that nothing important escapes his vigilant eye. To a counsel who was beating about the bush, Mr. Justice Mahajan said last January, ‘Must you start the new year with a bad case.

“Not that he tries to injure anyone’s feelings. He believes in administering swift, pure, unalloyed justice untrammelled by any considerations and his legal pronouncements, especially on the liberty of the subject and protection of property, will stand the test of time.”

I had a very good time as Chief Justice of India. My colleagues: gave me complete cooperation and affection. Rarely, if ever, we differed or wrote dissenting judgements. We freely criticised each others views and ultimately reached in most cases unanimous decisions. We were on the best of terms with one another.

One bench of the Supreme Court I took to Kashmir as desired by the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Kashmir Government, to decide all cases that had been transferred from the State Privy Council to the Supreme Court. Mr. Justice S. R. Das, Mr. Justice Gulam Hasan, and myself constituted the Kashmir Bench. We were there for a fortnight and during this period all pending matters were decided.

To be continued...