Musings On The Constitution-X Narasimhan Vijayaraghavan
Narasimhan Vijayaraghavan
To show how easily Alladi impressed both seniors in the profession and the judges of the High Court, one telling instance may be recalled. Once on behalf of Mr.Sundaram Aiyar , he was making a statement of English law, before a Bench presided over by no less a judge than Sir John Wallis, when in appreciation of the aptness of it, the judge queried: Where from have you got this? Is it from any judicial pronouncement or your own? At once Mr. V. Krishnaswami Aiyer, appearing on the other side, was heard to say. “That young man can himself formulate such a legal proposition.” It was a well-deserved tribute KP from one higher in the profession and Alladi long remembered it with pride and gratitude.
Born on May 14, 1883. In Nayudupet (Nellore Dist.) of poor parents, he was diligent in learning from the very beginning. From school he went to Christian College in Madras, where he became a favourite of professors like Mr.Kellet and soon won spurs in history. He served as a tutor for some time in the college, but soon entered the portals of the law college, ultimately to enter the legal profession.
It was said that when Sir Asutosh Mukharjee of Calcutta paid a visit in 1915, to the Vakil’s Association and Sir K. SrinivasaIyengar then a judge, introduced Alladi as a rising member of the Bar, Justice Sir Abdur Rahim (later to be President of the Legislative Council at the Centre in Delhi) who was nearby corrected him saying ‘He has already risen’.
Alladi Krishnaswami Aiyer was not known for exhaustive arguments in court. He always tried to be brief and careful in selecting a few points which alone, according to his judgement, if forcefully pressed, would win the case. No set plan would be employed by him, for his resilient mind often studied the judges and he changed his strategy to suit the occasion. If economy in art makes literature significant, no less was economy in presentation of arguments, a matter of art to Alladi. His sound memory and resourcefulness also served as useful aids.
It was a case for issue of a writ which came before a Bench presided over by Sir Murray Coutts Trotter. Alladi began to change his original intention, and canvassed a favourable passage from a book called “TIDD’s Practice of England. Justice Trotter could not restrain his surprise and asked Alladi ‘How did you get that book?’ The reply even more astounded the judge “We were familiar with that book in Sundaram Aiyar’s Law chambers when we worked under him’. Later he traced the entire course of that writ with various authorities and impressed Justice Trotter of the immense study involved. But soon Alladi with a wink, characteristic of him, said to a friend seated next to him ‘Of course the whole range of authorities is well collected in a Calcutta judgement of Justice Asutosh Mukherjee I purposely made it all look a renewed research for this case’.
One other matter needs attention about his quick grasp of details. In the Cauvery Arbitration matter before Justice Page, the Judge was taken up with him at the way he piled up points of intimate engineering technicalities. No doubt, the Chief Engineer of the Government of Madras was by his side to brief him on technical points. Still the readiness of his brain to grasp any unfamiliar subject in a moment, deserved the rich compliment offered by the Judge. Even before the Indian Government conceived of the setting up of a Federal Court at Delhi, he had anticipated it by regular studies of the various Federal constitutions of United States. Canada and Australia and equipped himself for any contingency that may arise for his services. He began to love the subject and was constantly purchasing books dealing with constitutions of states not only of Europe and America but of the Soviet Republic. It was a pleasure for him to plunge into that familiar field of his later day studies, with enormous zest.
He also knew the limits of law. In an earlier address at the Krishna Rajendra Silver Jubilee, 1939, he remarked, “ The one important lesson that is learnt by a lawyer in the course of his studies is that the source of all law is to be found lo the seething life of the people, that the course of legal development is determined by the progress attained by the nation in the several spheres, and that the legal system in its turn has shaped progress.” Dr.Alladi Krishnaswami Aiyer was convinced of the vast population’s responsibility for constitutions proving useful for answering the real needs of a growing nation, he thought of adult franchise as inevitable for its progress. He was found saying that “any day the unlettered man in the street was more educated than the compulsorily educated who pose to exercise the gift of franchise.”
K.Chandrasekara Iyer wrote in The Hindu, on the occasion of centenary of Sir Alladi Krishnaswamy Iyer,in 1983, “When all is said of Alladi’s achievements which certainly buoyed up his spirits, he was never proud or exclusive. His childlike simplicity in acknowledging others excellences, his loyalty to friends like Mr.Subbaraya Aiyar ( a tax lawyer of immense repute) who shared with him his joys and woes from the earliest times of their lives, his desire for his own progeny not lagging behind many an ambitious young spirit for achievement in life, his remaining to the last his own self all those qualities induce us to cherish his memory. “
Research, reading and recording these Musings on the life and times of Alladi Krishnaswamy Ayyar, was a journey of unalloyed joy. That I was practising before the same Madras High Court, as these legends walked and talked in , gives one unfair pride. The founders of the American revolution leading to the framing of the US Constitution and several decades down the years the Emancipation Proclamation and verdicts as in Dred Scot vs Sandford of 1857 and Plessey vs Ferguson in 1896 being overturned in Brown vs Board of Education in 1954 , on segregation, is an historical journey like no other. That journey is ‘in perennial celebration, as it ought to be’ as the late lamented Associate Justice Antonin Scalia said. It is a shame that we in India are totally immune to reading the historicity associated with the making of our Constitution, a genuine labour of love from our forefathers . And such compilations or literature are also woefully in abundant absence. Do we not have pride in our masters? The tragedy is that even our legal curriculum is totally bereft of any of this Constitutional history. The law students never get to read on the stalwarts who went ahead of them . It is all a commercial call, as the corporate practitioners would swear by, for a placement in campus interviews.
It was not easy for a legal professional in the past. Particularly, for those who chose to practice. The gestation period to break even a asbestos ceiling is a tough call. It is at times a struggle to make a living. It continues to be so, shout the junior members of the Bar, now exposed to these Covid19 climes. Law was always the last resort or family business. It was never or rarely a chosen destination. Most become lawyers by default, even Nani Palkhivala for one. Most do not take ‘to the profession passionately,but as an employment to make a living’ as Justice V R Krishna Iyer thought and said .India turns out too huge a crop of lawyers. In the face of too much supply , of too little trained ‘legal illiterates’ as Nani Palkhivala called us, the rise and rise of Alladi is some story to behold. Did I give short shrift to B N Rau, a Kannadiga? And partial and parochial to Alladi, a fellow Tamil (no, no- he was born in telegu speaking region say the rival claimants, all the time)? It is just that he practised in the High Court, I now have the good fortune to. That gives the natural affinity to go lyrical on this legend. Honestly, it is shockingly pitiful that even these names do not do the rounds in the Bar and Bench, as familiar ones .That tells something about the qualitative health of the very institution. But for this Pandemic chance, I wonder, even if I may have indulged such musings, if I did not have the luxury of the time and space to indulge. All for good . Good for all? I don’t know. But, surely good for me.
From a true blue Ayyar in the orthodox attire, to one…………………….
(Continued)
(Author is practising advocate in the Madras. High Court.
