My First Brief continues...


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. Anderson was another very good judge. On the Sessions side we had Le-Rossignal who later became a High Court judge. When I appeared before him for the first time. I started arguing in English. He quietly put in. “Mr. Mahajan, the language of the court is Urdu!” He knew Urdu so well that he would suggest an appropriate Urdu word if a lawyer was in difficulty about it. Campbell and Bhide were the other Sessions Judges before whom I appeared during this period. I was very much impressed by the speed and efficiency with which all of them worked. I wish all our judges today were as hard-working and efficient as were the judges of those days.





7
PRACTISING LAW AT GURDASPUR

THE shifting of my legal practice from Dharamsala to Gurdaspur District synchronized with World War I, which broke out a few months after I had joined the Gurdaspur Bar. Legal fees in Gurdaspur in those days were much lower than at Dharamsala. A leading lawyer could be retained for Rs. 20 in an appeal case and for Rs. 50 in a civil suit. Lower down the fees ranged from Rs. 2 to Rs. 5.

The lawyers in Gurdaspur seldom worked at night, but otherwise they were a good lot, though a bit stingy and not very sociable. They didn’t spend much on themselves, with one or two notable exceptions and lived poorly. To start with I had the Mahajan clientele. There were big Mahajan sahukars in Gurdaspur District. In Shakargarh, Pathankot an Gurdaspur tehsils they wielded considerable influence. With their patronage I never earned less than Rs. 300 a month, enough to maintain me in good style. Of course, father made up for my extravagant tastes. I had a horse and a tonga, a good house to live in and enough cereals from father’s lands.

to be continued.....