Jurist with a humanist vision
R. VIJAYA SANKAR
NEEDHI VAANIL ORU SENTHARAGAI: Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer: A. Mahaboob Batcha; Society for Community Organisation Trust, Justice Bhagwati Bhavan, 143 Lakeview Road, KK Nagar, Madurai-625020. Rs. 200.
Long before the concept of judicial activism became a talking point, a lawyer in an activist mould entered the portals of the judiciary with a humanist vision and set new benchmarks for justice delivery. He is perhaps the only Indian who held high offices in all the three arms of the state, with serving the underprivileged as his mission and, in the process, testing, as it were, the limits of the Marxist-Leninist dictum that the state is the executive committee managing the common affairs of the ruling classes.
Evolution
This book brings out the evolution of Vaidhyanathapuram Ramayyar Krishna Iyer, who was born in a hamlet near Palakkad in Kerala on November 15, 1914, into a lawyer at Thalassery; a firm supporter of the early Communist movement, a link that landed him in prison under the preventive detention law; a Communist-supported independent in the Legislative Assembly of the Madras Presidency; a Minister in the world’s first democratically elected Communist government led by E.M.S. Namboodiripad; a Judge of the Kerala High Court and eventually of the Supreme Court of India.
It was his association with the legendary Communist leaders such as P. Krishna Pillai and A.K. Gopalan, as a lawyer representing the interests of workers and peasants, that drew him into the arena of radical politics. As a member of the Namboodiripad Ministry, he was instrumental in giving shape to many a progressive legislation that was crucial to what later came to be known as the “Kerala model of development.” His imprint was strong on Kerala’s laws on land reform, agricultural debt relief, prison reforms, police reforms, and so on. Interestingly, under his ministry, the police personnel were involved in public works such as repairing roads and digging canals.
Whether it was music or law, “the last man on the street” was his focus. This is evident from an interesting anecdote: During a music concert by Madurai Mani Iyer, he asked the famous Carnatic singer why he should not render songs praising workers and peasants, and the maestro readily obliged. As Justice K. Chandru of the Madras High Court says in his foreword, the working class will always feel obliged to the Judge. Also, Krishna Iyer arranged for All India Radio concerts by a Carnatic musician, who was serving a jail term, when he learnt, on a prison visit, that the musician’s family was struggling for survival after his conviction in a murder case.
Innovative
It was this deep humanness that impelled him to promote such innovative judicial concepts as legal aid and public interest litigation, which brought the judiciary closer to the common man, aside from campaigning relentlessly against custodial torture and capital punishment. The narration of this interesting biography is however severely marred by excessive digression, chronological confusion, and authorial pontification. In the end, the reader is left with the fond hope that at least the next edition the author has promised will be a better-edited one.
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