Jayalalitha

 Jayalalitha has been acquited by the Karnataka High Court. I would not like to comment on the verdict as I have not read the judgment. But I would like to say, as I have said earlier also, that she never interfered with my functioning when I was Chief Justice of Madras High Court ( 2004-2005 ) and she was the Chief Minister of Tamilnadu, and she always respected the independence of the judiciary. She never asked me to recommend anyone for Judgeship of the High Court, and she never sought to influence the judiciary in any way.

Throughout my stay as Chief Justice of Madras High Court I met her only once, and that was at Raj Bhawan when she came to my oath taking ceremony. Thereafter I never met her while I was Chief Justice, as I had made it a strict rule that I will never go to the house or office of any politician as long as I was the Chief Justice. Ministers of both the D.M.K.( which was in power in the Central Govt. as an ally of the Congress ) and A.D.M.K.( which was in power in the state ) would come to meet me at my residence on 17, Greenways Road, to discuss various issues, but I never went to their houses or offices. I told all of them the same thing : that as Chief Justice I would be totally impartial, and so if the law was in their favour the judgment would go in their favour, but if the law was against them it would go against them.

 While Jayalalitha respected the independence of the judiciary, I regret to say the same cannot be said about the D.M.K. A Union Minister belonging to that party repeatedly met me with a list of names of lawyers whom he wanted recommended for High Court Judgeship. I enquired about these persons, and found that many of them were not even practising lawyers. No doubt they had been enrolled as lawyers many years ago, but they were never seen in law courts, and were probably full time politicians. Obviously if such persons were appointed as Judges they would not be impartial.

 When I told that Union Minister that I would not recommend the persons in the list he had given me ( and who were all undeserving persons ) he told me that he had given an assurance to these persons that they would become High Court Judges. I told him that he had no business to give such an assurance. He then said that by refusing to recommend his names I was jeopardising my chances of becoming a Supreme Court Judge. I said that indeed I aspired to be a Supreme Court Judge, but for becoming one I would not do wrong things, come what may. The maximum punishment which could be given me was not to allow me to become a Supreme Court Judge, but I was prepared for that punishment.

 I have always been of the view that a lawyer who is too close to any political party is not fit to be a Judge as he cannot be impartial. So in the list of 20 persons I recommended ( as there were over 25 vacancies in the High Court at that time ) there was no one close to D.M.K. or A.D.M.K.or any other political party. And I must say to the credit of Jayalalitha that she never objected to the names I recommended, although there was no lawyer belonging to, or close to, the ADMK in my list. She approved all the names I recommended.

 The DMK was very annoyed that I had not recommended anyone in the list their Minister had given me, and they stalled appointments of the persons I had recommended for over 6 months. They could do that as in the UPA Congress did not have a majority in Parliament, and was dependent on its allies, of which the DMK was a big one, for survival. Ultimately it was only when a PIL was filed and orders issued by the Supreme Court that the appointments could be made.

 As I said before, apart from our meeting at Raj Bhawan at my oath taking, I never met Jayalaitha during my term as Chief Justice of Madras High Court. It was much later when I came to Chennai for some function ( in 2012 or so, after I had retired from the Supreme Court ) ) that I sought an appointment with her, and met her at her office in the Secretariat. I had gone to meet her to request her to give an allowance to retired High Court Judges of Madras High Court for engaging a servant ( as I had got done for retired Judges of Allahabad High Court ).

 I arrived punctually on time, and was taken straight to her office. which was perhaps on the second floor. There was no politician  apart from herself in the room, but there were about half a dozen senior officers, the Chief Secretary, Home Secretary, etc whom she introduced to me. She then requested me to sit down.

 I thanked her for giving me an appointment, and then submitted to her the memorandum I had prepared in which was mentioned the request for an allowance to retired High Court Judges. She read it, and said she will certainly consider it ( it was subsequently granted ).

 I then told her that I respected her because she never interfered with the functioning of the judiciary when I was Chief Justice of Madras High Court, and never asked me to recommend any name for Judgeship.

 I then told her that Tamilians should learn Hindi, as it was in their interest to do so as they faced great difficulty when they go out of Tamilnadu. She said that there was a reaction in Tamilnadu because some North Indian politicians tried to impose Hindi. I agreed with her that those North Indian politicians were wrong. This is the age of democracy, and nothing should be imposed. However all that is now in the past, and Tamilians should reconsider.

 I then said that I was told that she knew Hindi. At this she smiled, and started speaking in fluent Hindi, and we spoke in Hindi for the next 5 minutes.

I was half inclined to tell her that she looked pretty, but decided that discretion is the better part of valour !

Periyar ( 1879-1973 )

Periyar ( E.V. Ramaswamy  ) was objectively a British agent, who preached caste hatred. The wicked British policy in India after the Mutiny of 1857 was of divide and rule. In the Mutiny Hindus and Muslims had fought jointly against the British. After suppressing the Mutiny the British decided that the only way to control India was divide and rule ( see online ' History in the Service of Imperialism ' by B.N. Pande ). So the British policy was that not only religious hatred but also caste hatred had to be aroused and spread in India. It is true that there were already religious and caste differences in feudal Indian society. The whole question was whether these differences should be narrowed down, or further aggravated ? The British policy was that they should be aggravated. The policy of all patriotic Indians ( like Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad, Surya Sen ( Masterda , etc ), on the other hand, was, and still must be, that the differences should be reduced and we become one, strong and prosperous nation

Naanum Oru Tamilar

I do not believe in rebirth. But if there were rebirths, I was certainly a Tamilian in one of my previous births. Whenever I go to Tamilnadu I feel I am going home, and feel at home there. I have lots of friends in Tamilnadu, and Tamilians have always given me a lot of love and respect, which is because of the kindness and generosity of their hearts. When meeting a Tamilian I often say :" naanum oru Tamilar " ( I, too, am a Tamilian ). and I mean it ( though I am also a Kashmiri, an M.P.ite, a U.P.ite, a Bengali, a Rajasthani, an Oriya, and a Punjabi, because of the association of my ancestors with those places ).

  While studying in Allahabad University, where I was from 1963-1967, I got this idea of learning Tamil, probably because I thought I should know my country, and Tamilnadu was furthest away in the south. So I joined a Tamil diploma course in the Allahabad University ( apart from pursuing my regular studies). My Tamil teacher was one Prof. Ranganathan, and he always wore a white turban and put on a tilak ( naamam) on his forehead. I remember the first words in Tamil which were in my Tamil book : " Tamilar Veeram " i.e. the bravery of the Tamil people.

 After I finished my studies in Allahabad University, I decided I needed to know more about Tamilnadu. So in !967 I went to Annamalai University in Tamilnadu, and joined a one year spoken Tamil diploma course there  ( I was told it was discontinued some years after I had left ).

   I remember that on approaching the University, there were vast stretches of water on both sides of the approach road, and many cocoanut trees.

  My Tamil teachers were Mr. Raja, and Mr. Shanmugam Pillai. When I went to Annamalai University after I became a Supreme Court Judge in 2006 I was told there that Mr. Raja had disappeared somewhere while he was alive, but I met members of his family.

  I was in Kambar Hostel. One of my room mates there was Venkat Subbu Reddy, about whom I had put up a previous post on facebook. He was from Pondicherry, and he later became a teacher, but has now retired, and looks after his farm. He had met me when I was leaving Tamilnadu to take over as Chief Justice of Delhi High Court in October 2005, and again when he came to meet me in Chennai this year.

 When I went to Annamalai University after becoming a Supreme Court Judge, I went to Kambar Hostel. The news of my coming had obviously reached the hostellers, who greeted me with loud cheering when I arrived.

  At Annamalai University I often used to go to the Chidambaram Temple , which is about 2 kms. from the University,on foot with some friends. I played a lot of football, my favourite game, in the University.

  Much later, I became the Chief Justice of Madras High Court in November 2004. At that time the High Court was in a very bad shape, for reasons which need not be mentioned, and I determined to set it right.

 My flight from Delhi was reaching Chennai at about 2 p.m. on a working day,and I telephoned the then Acting Chief Justice to request all the Hon'ble Judges of the High Court not to come to the airport to receive me because it would not be proper for Judges to leave their Courts during working hours. However, a large number of lawyers received me at Chennai airport. The Hon'ble Judges called on me in the evening after Court hours.

  I was given a warm welcome in the High Court, and in my speech I quoted from the Tirukkural, some verses I had learnt in my Tamil diploma course in Allahabad.

 On the very first day of my joining the Madras High Court, after the Court hours, the Registrar General of the High Court brought an old lady with white hair into my chamber. She could not speak English, and kept moving her hands indicating that there were small children in her house. The Registrar General told me that she was an employee of the High Court who had just retired after about 35 years service, and her son, who had small children was unemployed. I immediately told the Registrar General to give her son a job in the High Court

 When I went to Madurai, where a bench of the High Court had been set up a few months earlier, I was again given a warm welcome in the High Court. In my speech I referred to the famous Tamil epic Silappathihaaram of the poet Ilango, about which also I had read in my Tamil diploma course in Allahabad and  Annamalai University. I said that Kannagi had burnt the entire city of Madurai because injustice had been done to her husband, and therefore if you want to have peace and prosperity justice must always be done.

  During the lunch interval on the very first day at Madurai, two lawyers brought a young woman to my chamber, who was crying. The lawyers told me that her husband, who was employed as a class 4 employee in Tirunelveli district court, had recently been killed in a bus accident, and she had two small children with no means of financial support. She was an M.Ed. and so I called the Registrar of the Madurai bench and told him to give her a class 3 ( clerical ) job in the High Court. Her name is Kalavathi, and whenever I go to Madurai she meets me.

 I have already said a lot about certain matters relating to the Madras High Court in my previous posts ( one of which created a lot of controversy ) and so I need not repeat it. I may only make a passing reference to the Madras High Court Museum and the Tamilnadu Mediation and Conciliation Centre which I got set up, as well, as the Madras High Court Guest House, which I initiated, and which was completed after I had left.

 Even after coming to Delhi my association with Tamilnadu, and particularly Tamilian Judges and lawyers, has remained strong. Many of my recommendees are now very senior Judges of the Madras High Court, and I  am told they are keeping the flag of the High Court flying high. Even now I am always concerned about the welfare of the judiciary in Tamilnadu.

 In the Supreme Court my knowledge of some Tamil was helpful, and I often used it when a Tamilian lawyer was arguing before my bench.. Once, Mr. K. Parasaran, a very senior lawyer, and former Attorney General of India, was arguing before my bench. There was nothing in his case, so I told him in Tamil " Okaarung " ( which means, please sit down ). Had I said that in English he may have felt offended, but since I said it in his own mother tongue he smiled and sat down.

 In the Supreme Court I found one Tamil word very useful, and which I sometimes used after a Tamilian lawyer had finished his argument, " Tallupadi ", which means " Dismissed!".