My First Brief continues...

Inder Singh resisted the claim on the ground that Thakar Singh was illegitimate and born of a woman of low caste, not duly married to. Uttam Singh. Hundreds of witnesses were produced in the case, most of them liars who had been paid handsomely to tell lies. Ultimately on the basis of documentary evidence the District Judge declared Thakar Singh legitimate. His father had always treated him as his son. On appeal the High Court accepted the oral evidence of liars and reversed the judgment of the lower Court. The Privy Council did not go beyond it. Some compromise was later on made between
the two brothers. Thakar Singh got some property by way of maintenance. I appeared in this case for Thakar Singh in the District Courts as well as in the High Court. I learnt at my client’s cost that it was not very difficult to procure a large number of witnesses to tell lies if they were handsomely paid. My client’s case also suffered on account of the claim made by the, family that they were high class Rajputs. As such, sustaining a claim to a share of inheritance by a son who could not prove that his mother had been lawfully married to his father was difficult.

The judges before whom I appeared during these years were either members of the I.C.S. or the P.C.S. Ross was an Indian Civilian. He used to type out the evidence while the witnesses were giving their depositions. He understood Pahari and Urdu very well and whatever a witness said he translated it into English and typed the reply accurately without any help from the Bar.

Strickland spoke Urdu and Punjabi very fluently and all arguments before him were conducted in Urdu. He was not as calm and patient as Ross. Tapp followed him. He was once a secretary of the Lahore Municipality and later became a High Court judge. He was a very capable judge, patient and hard working. I won a number of cases before him.

to be continued...