This book is an account of over thirty years of very prominent participation by Justice V. R. Krishna Iyer as a human rights lawyer, minister, legislator, high court judge, member, Law Commission, Supreme Court judge, and social activist and reformer
Wandering in Many Worlds: An Autobiography
Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer
Publisher: Pearson
Pages: 308; Price: Rs 650
This is an Autobiography of Justice V.R.Krishna Iyer, who passed away on December 4,2014 after completing 100 years a fortnight earlier. Soli Sorabji, former Attorney General wrote “…the one essential quality that distinguishes him from his judicial brethren and puts him in a class of his own is compassion, He took human suffering seriously and dispensed justice with compassion which he possessed in abundance”. Iyer himself summed up his life as the “home of lost causes, forsaken beliefs, unpopular names and impossible loyalties”.
When the history of India’s Supreme Court comes to be written, Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer will find a place of pride for his distinguished contribution to judicial activism, public interest litigation and the judicial review he initiated and strengthened. The book under review, flaunting a sub-title “An Autobiography” is not exactly one. The contents are a collection of his articles. It gives us glimpses of facets of his life few are aware of — his experiences as a child in an obscure village in Kerala, as a student and as a young adult in Annamalai University, as a devoted husband, and as a spiritual follower of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s transcendental meditation. It also deals with his experiences with the Occult. He believed, as did R.K.Narayan, that he could and did regularly communicate with his departed wife.
Krishna Iyer had three major divisions in his career — Member of the Madras Legislature, Minister in the EMS Government in Kerala and Judge in the Supreme Court — apart from several other roles. He has to his credit 724 judgments — some of them turning out to be classics. According to H.M. Seervai, “The finest hour of the Supreme Court was when Krishna Iyer wrote the judgment on Indira Gandhi Vs Raj Narain where eminent counsels like Nani Palkhiwala and Shanti Bhushan appeared for either sides.” In his judicial career Krishna Iyer in the dictum of Socrates; “Four things belong to a judge, to
hear courteously, to answer wisely, to consider soberly and to decide impartially.” He was a true upholder of the Socratic Code.
When he retired from the Supreme Court the Bar Association passed a resolution from which a quote is very apt and relevant. “There are many landmark judgments you have handed down which have helped to humanize our legal system, particularly in the field of criminal jurisprudence and jail reforms, and which have helped to resolve critical intricacies of constitutional law, harmonising its delicate equations, optimising fundamental rights and extending the frontiers of the accountability of the State and its instrumentalities in their ever expanding operations. Many of your judgments have given a new dimension and a new direction to law…there was always your shining faith in the true role and destiny of law in a developing society, which made you the lyricist, the poet-laureate and the visionary of a socially aware and socially accountable Third World jurisprudence”.
Vaidyanathapuram Rama Krishna Iyer was born on November 15, 1914 at Vaidyanathapuram near Palakkad in Malabar region, Iyer began his legal career in 1937 working under the tutelage of his father V V Rama Ayyar, a leading criminal lawyer. He had a tryst with politics when he became an MLA from then Madras assembly constituency in 1952 and was appointed
minister in the first elected communist government of E M S Namboodiripad in Kerala in 1957.
He was an important force behind key decisions in the state’s history such as the land reforms law. After he lost elections in 1965, Iyer concentrated on his legal practice and was elevated as judge of the Kerala high court in 1968 and to the Supreme Court in 1973. He retired on November 14, 1980. He was a proponent of speedy justice.
Iyer put citizens at the centre of his focus and was a living legend for his knowledge of law that prompted former Chief Justice of India A S Anand to refer to him as ‘Bhisma Pithamah’ of Indian judiciary. He retired from the apex court in 1980. According to Fali S Nariman “when Krishna Iyer speaks, the nation listens”.
Some of his landmark judgments, including banning of routine handcuffing of prisoners, the Shamser Singh case which interpreted the powers of the cabinet vis-à-vis the President, earned him a place among renowned legal scholars such as Earl Warren, former Chief Justice of the US, and Lord Denning.
His interim order of June 24, 1975 not giving the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi unconditional stay of the Allahabad high court verdict declaring as void her election to the Lok Sabha won him massive appreciation as well as criticism. Emergency was clamped the next day. Iyer rejected the application by Gandhi that the verdict finding her guilty of corrupt election practices and disqualifying her for six years should be totally suspended.
Gandhi was allowed by the apex court to function as prime minister, attend the Lok Sabha but without a right to vote following well-settled precedents. H M Seervai, wrote that historians will say that the Supreme Court moved towards its finest hour after he rejected Gandhi’s application for an unconditional stay that changed the history of the nation.
Iyer had excellent command over both English and Malayalam. Whatever he had to say he would say euphonically, beautifully and emphatically. He pleaded, he urged, he demanded and he warned, using his huge vocabulary as a sabre.
After retirement from the Supreme Court where his judgments stood the test of time, Iyer spurned the lure of power and became an unrivalled champion of social justice,
constitutional values and the rule of law. He blossomed into an iconic and inspirational figure both nationally and internationally.
Iyer, a recipient of the Padma Vibhushan, authored about 70 books mostly on law besides four travelogues. He served as a Member of the Law Commission from 1971 to 1973 and also headed the State Law Reform Commission. Krishna Iyer was one person who richly deserved the Bharat Ratna. This autobiography deserves to be read by all admirers of Krishna Iyer, members of the legal fraternity, students and laymen interested in the dignity of law.
P.P. Ramachandran
