My First Brief continues...


In the winter of 1913 father told me it would be better if I took up practice at Gurdaspur as there, was not enough scope for both of us at Dharamsala. He slyly added that I would lose my self-confidence if I remained with him much longer. I was using him as a ready reference and had had little opportunity to work on a case on my own. We had some lands in Gurdaspur District, which father had bought with his savings but about which there had been much litigation. Some of it is still going on. To assure me that my going to Gurdaspur would serve his interests as well, he declared that my presence at Gurdaspur would sober down the lawyer who had engineered the litigation and who was himself trying to get the lands. Father had purchased a village in my name. Here again a suit was pending on behalf of the alienor’s son who claimed that the sale was void as it had been made without legal necessity.

In December 1913 it was eventually decided that I should set up independent practice in Gurdaspur. Father secured a house for me there and I went to Gurdaspur in January 1914.

A word about the leading members of the Dharamsala Bar. Father was the acknowledged leader in those days. Moti Lal Kaistha, a scion of the great house of the Kaistha Mahajans of Nagrota Baghwan, had a fairly good practice. His family owned considerable land and was very influential in the Kangra valley. Moti Lal Kaistha was known as the King of Ghirths as he had a great hold on this agricultural community. He was a strong man and was generally seen on horseback. He could manage to attend cases the same day at Dharamsala, Kangra and Palampur, in three courts situated at long distances from one another by moving from one place to another on horseback. He was vice-chairman of the district board and secretary of the municipal committee and later on a member of the Legislative Council.


to be continued...