Law Graduates Immortalized on Postal Stamps
A lawyer dons his robe, and with that he dons many a hats, that of a thinker, an activist, areformer, a policy maker, a freedom fighter and many more. These are some lawyers whoadorned these roles with such panache, that the Government of India issued postal stampscommemorating their contributions to the society and thereby immortalizing them for theposterity.
Motilal Nehru
Motilal Nehru was born in a KashmiriPanditfamily, he was the posthumouschild of Gangadhar Nehru. He becameone of the first generation of youngIndians to receive a 'Western-style'college education. He passed lawexamination in 1883 and startedpracticing as a lawyer at Kanpur. Threeyears later he moved to Allahabad.Later he qualified 'Bar at law' fromCambridge and then enlisted as alawyer in the English courts. In April1887, his brother Nandlal died at anearly age, leaving behind five sons andtwo daughters, thus Motilal at the ageof 25 became sole bread-winner of thefamily. He soon made a mark forhimself in the legal profession ofAllahabad. In 1909, he reached thepinnacle of his legal career by gainingthe approval to appear in the PrivyCouncil of Great Britain.
Nehru under the influence of MahatmaGandhi in 1918, became one of the firstto exclude western goods, adopting anative Indian lifestyle. Motilal Nehru twice served as President of theCongress Party. He was arrested duringthe Non-Cooperation Movement. In1923, Nehru was elected to the newCentral Legislative Assembly of BritishIndia in New Delhi and became leaderof the Opposition. In that role, he wasable to secure the defeat, or at least thedelay, of Finance Bills and other legislation.
Motilal Nehru chaired the famousNehru Commission in 1928, which wasa counter to the all-British SimonCommission. Nehru's Report, the firstconstitution written by Indians only,conceived a dominion status for India.He was arrested in 1930, however, afterhis son Jawaharlal Nehru was arrested,but was soon released due to his failinghealth. He is known as the patriarch ofthe Nehru-Gandhi family, having giventhree prime ministers to the country.
In 2012, to commemorate 150th BirthAnniversary of Nehru, Government ofIndia released a postal stamp.
"War is a litigation between nations, whilea litigation is a war between parties”
Dr. Kailash NathKatju (1887 - 1968)
KailashNathKatju born in theprincely state of Jaora, MadhyaPradesh studied in the Jaora School tillMarch 1900, when he was sent toLahore. He passed his matriculationexamination from Punjab Universityin 1901 and passed his B.A.examination from the ChristianCollege, Lahore in 1905.
He then joined the Muir CentralCollege at Allahabad and passed hisL.L.B. Examination, standing secondin the province. In 1908, he passed hisMaster of Arts examination in Historyalso from the Allahabad University. Hestarted his career in the legalprofession at Kanpur in 1908. In 1914,he shifted to Allahabad. In 1919, hetook L.L.D. degree.
He was also one of India's mostprominent lawyers. He defended theaccused in the Meerut ConspiracyCase in Allahabad High Court in 1933and later the military officers accusedat the INA trial at Red Fort in Delhi.
In 1937, he actively joined the freedomstruggle and politics and accepted theportfolio of Law and Justice in thePant Ministry in U.P. The ministryresigned in 1939 and Dr. Katju offeredSatyagraha and was imprisoned for 18months. After release he continued hispolitical activities and was detained inprison in 1942.
He became the Governor of Orissa andthen West Bengal. From West Bengal,where he enjoyed much popularity hewent to New Delhi as Minister ofHome, Law and State Affairs. After theHome Ministry, he took over thecharge of Defence Portfolio.Thereafter, he took over as ChiefMinister, Madhya Pradesh.
He retired from politics and wrotebooks. On his skills as an advocate,P.N. Sapru says, “Dr. Katju'sgreatestasset was his speed. As an Advocate, hecould be seen opening a heavy FirstAppeal in one court, and an hour later,replying in a part-heard case inanother court, soon after one couldhear him addressing a third court byway of a rejoinder….. Dr. Katju enjoyedthe reputation of being one of thegreatest case winners which theAllahabad High Court has produced.All this was possible, apart from hislegal erudition and gifted intellect,because of his phenomenal capacity ofsifting essential from the non-essential.”
The department of posts, on his birthcentenary in 1987, issued acommemorative stamp.
Mahommedali CurrimChagla(1900 - 1981)
M. C. Chagla was born in 1900 atBombay in a well-known Shia Muslimmerchant family. Educated atSt. Xavier's High School and College inBombay, and later at Lincoln College,Oxford. In 1922, he took the degree ofB.A. achieving distinction. In 1927, hewas appointed Professor ofConstitutional Law at the GovernmentLaw College, Bombay where heworked with Dr. B.R. Ambedkar.
When admitted to the Bar of theBombay High Court, he worked withsuch luminaries as Sir Jamsetji Kangaand Mohammed Ali Jinnah, but hesevered all ties with him after Jinnahbegan to work for the cause of aseparate Muslim State.
He was elevated as a judge to BombayHigh Court in 1941, and in 1948became the first Indian Chief Justiceof the Bombay High Court. In 1946,Justice Chagla was part of the firstIndian delegation to the UN.
For a brief period he served as ActingGovernor of the then State of Bombay.Following his tenure as Chief Justice,there was transfer of Hon'ble JusticeChagla from judicial to the politicaland diplomatic sphere.
He served as the one-man commissionthat examined the Finance Minister of India, T. T. Krishnamachari, over thecontroversial HaridasMundhra LICinsurance scandal, which forcedKrishnamachari's resignation asFinance Minister.
From September 1957 to 1959, heserved as ad hoc judge to theInternational Court of Justice atHague. In early 1960's, he also servedas Indian ambassador to the USA andas Indian High Commissioner in theUK. He served as Education Ministerthen served as the Minister forExternal Affairs of India in late 1960'safter which he left government serviceand continued to practice law up to hisseventies.
The wide knowledge and experiencewhich he brought to his high office,secured him the distinction of beingone of the great judicial figures in thehistory of the Bombay High Court. Hisautobiography 'Roses in December'first published 1973 has gone into 13editions, a fact which bears testimonyto his rare genius and lingering appeal.
The Department of Posts released acommemorative postage stamp onM.C. Chagla in 2004.
Raj Narain(1917 - 1986)
Raj Narain was born in 1917 in aBhumihar Brahmin family in a villagein Varanasi. He studied M.A and LL.B.Narain was the President of StudentCongress and played an active role in1942 Quit IndiaMovement so much sothat the British government hadoffered a prize of Rs.5000 to anybodywho could apprehend him.
Narain joined Socialist Party and heldmany party positions. He was veryclose to Dr. Ram ManoharLohia, whosaid “if in India there could be justthree or four persons like him,dictatorship can never shadow the democracy”.
He was in Uttar Pradesh LegislativeAssembly for two terms, serving from1952 to 1962. He was a member of theRajyaSabha from 1966 to 1972 andfrom 1974 to 1976.
Popularly known as Lokbandhu RajNarain, he accused Indira Gandhi ofelection fraud and filed an electionpetition against her. The AllahabadHigh Court, on 12 June 1975, upheldthe accusations and set aside theelection of Indira Gandhi and alsodisqualified her from running in theLokSabha elections for next 6 years.The verdict led to the authoritarianstate of emergency that Mrs. Gandhideclared soon after, arrestingthousands of critics, includingMr. Narain. However, the decision ofHigh Court was in appeal set aside bythe Supreme Court.
Later, he stood as a candidate of JanataParty for the LokSabha in 1977, fromRae Bareli constituency and defeatedIndira Gandhi in her own pocketborough. He was Minister of Health inMorarji Desai's Government from 1977to 1980.
He is one of the pillars of Socialistmovement in India along withDr. Ram ManoharLohia. Narain wasjailed 80 times, spending a total ofnearly 17 years in jail, 3 years in Britishrule and 14 years in Congress rule(anti-government protest) in his life ofsixty nine years.
A commemorative stamp was releasedin his honour by the former VicePresident of India, Bhairon SinghShekhawat, in 2010.
Dr. Shankardayal Sharma(1918 - 1999)
Shankar Dayal Sharma was born inBhopal. Dr. Sharma received hiseducation at St. John's College, Agra,Allahabad University, LucknowUniversity, Fitzwilliam College,Cambridge University, Lincoln's Innand Harvard Law School. He took hisM.A. Degrees in English Literature,Hindi and Sanskrit standing first inthe University. He obtained his LL.M.from Lucknow University once againstanding first in the University. Heobtained his Ph.D. in Law atCambridge. Dr. Sharma was awardedthe Chakravarti Gold Medal for SocialService by Lucknow University.
During the 1940s he was involved inthe struggle for Indian independencefrom the British, and joined the IndianNational Congress. After India'sindependence, Sharma led publicagitations against the Nawab ofBhopal who wanted Bhopal to remaina separate unit, leading to his arrest.
Under public pressure, the Nawablater released him, and signed theagreement for merger with the IndianUnion on 30 April 1949.
In 1952, Sharma became the ChiefMinister of the Bhopal State andserved in that position till 1956, whenBhopal State merged to form the Stateof Madhya Pradesh. In 1971 and in1980 he won a LokSabha seat fromBhopal. He served in the unioncabinet as the Minister forCommunication from 1974-77. In 1984,he began serving as a governor ofIndian states, first in Andhra Pradesh.
Following the death of his daughterand son in-law at the hands of Sikhmilitants, in 1985, he left AndhraPradesh and became governor ofPunjab. He left Punjab in 1986 andtook up his final governorship inMaharashtra.
He remained governor of Maharashtrauntil 1987 when he was elected for a 5-year term as the eighth Vice-Presidentof India and chairman of the RajyaSabha. Sharma was known to be astickler for parliamentary norms. Hewas the ninth President of India from1992 till 1997.
A commemorative postal stamp wasreleased in the year 2000 on his firstdeath anniversary.
NanabhoyArdeshirPalkhivala(1920 - 2002)
Nanabhoy 'Nani' ArdeshirPalkhivala,born in 1920 to middle class Parsiparents, was educated at MastersTutorial High School, and later atSt. Xavier's College, both in Bombay.He had a bad stammer which heeventually got over. He earned aMaster's degree in English literatureand after having tried in vain to getadmission to various courses, hejoined the Government Law College,Bombay.
Nani Palkhivala joined the Bar in 1944and served at the chambers of SirJamshedjiBehramji Kanga in Bombay.In no time he gained a reputation asan eloquent and articulate barrister.His ability to recall barely known factsrendered him the centre of attractionof courtrooms where often lawstudents and juniors would throng towatch his court craft. Commercial andtaxations laws were his forte.
At the tender age of thirty he authored'The Law and Practice of Income Tax',with Jamshedji Kanga, which is anauthoritative work till date. Nani Palkhivala was one of the leadinginterpreters of Constitutional law anda most ardent defender of the civil liberties.
Between 1965 and 1995, he arguednearly all important constitutional lawcases before the Supreme Court ofIndia: GolakNath, Bank Nationalisation, Privy Purses,Kesavananda Bharati, St. Xavier's,Mandal Commission and the ElectionCommission matter, which changedthe destiny of the country.
He also represented India in threemajor international disputes. He notonly interpreted the Constitution as amessage of intent, he also saw it as asocial mandate with a moral dimension.
A man of many parts and strongopinions, he gave critical lectures onthe annual budget, which attractedaudiences in excess of 1,00,000.
Nani Palkhivala was called on to be a Supreme Court judge and was evenoffered to be the Attorney General ofIndia, both offers he declined. Nani Palkhivala was appointed IndianAmbassador to the United States from1977 till 1979. He was a recipient ofmany prestigious awards including thePadma Vibhushan.
Soli Sorabjee says in his honour, “Naniwas an extraordinary mortal whoexemplified in his life at least twopercepts of Kipling. He filled theunforgiving minute with more thansixty seconds worth of distance runand, what is more, he walked withkings and yet lost not the common touch.”
Author Name: Flair Talk
