V.R. Krishna Iyer – The Super Judge [First VRK Memorial Lecture by Fali Nariman]

Inaugural Lecture of V.R. But when Krishna Iyer’s name went up to the Bar Committee for approval, the Committee of the Kerala High Court Bar Association thought it fit to reject him since the newly enrolled Member was “ an avowed communist.” Krishna Iyer then told me, the sequel – his bright eyes – always bright till the end – now glistening: “I said I would sue them all since they had second thoughts about refusing to enrol a communist after accepting this communist’s life subscription. After his career as a Judge including a couple of years as Chief Justice of Bombay, Madhav Reddy after retirement, argued a case before the Supreme Court of India, and I now quote from the “Musings.” Listen carefully to this – it is Krishna Iyer’s indictment of two Chief Justices of India –. Always a man Krishna Iyer in his judgment in the case first quotes Shakespeare: “Imprisonment is not to be ordered merely because, like Shylock the creditor says, I crave the law, the penalty and forfeit of my bond.” The Judge then quotes from a book more ancient than Shakespeare – the Bible – the Old Testament: “Mercy is reasonable in the time of affliction as clouds of rain in the time of drought.” When the case first came before him Krishna Iyer looked into the law and found that the enacted law gave him no choice but to uphold the judgment of the Kerala High Court. It is said that when Justice William Douglas retired from the Supreme Court of the United States, after a tenure spread over three decades, a widely read magazine described him as: “The Court’s grandest maverick, a rugged liberal with a shock of white hair, piercing eyes and a luminous regard for the First Amendment.” When Krishna Iyer retired from the Court in 1980 – he was the Court’s grandest maverick a rugged liberal with a shock of white hair and piercing eyes – and a luminous regard for the poor and needy.