Dr. ALLADI KRISHNASWAMI AIYAR
K. CHANDRASEKHARAN
When a proper history of the Madras Bar gets
chronicled and the galaxy of its past leaders portrayed, no other figure will
more engage our attention than that of Dr. Alladi Krishnaswami Aiyar with his brilliant
forensic powers of debating and his pioneering studies in Constitutional Law.
Though endowed poorly by nature in his physique and looks, still by his beaming
and glittering eyes and broad smile, he never escaped notice in any
distinguished assembly. For nearly three decades and more, he moved from one to
the other of the High Court halls, and attracted not only a large and varied
clientele but an entire world of jurists. His name was on every lip and his
unassuming demeanour towards all gained him an enviable
popularity. He remained the same likeable gentleman to everybody, despite his
day-to-day self-surpassing position in the public eye. Being conscious of his
early trials in penury and his struggle to rise in his profession, he never
once afterwards displaced a wholesome sympathy to others in the same
predicament in life, by any of the intolerances or indifferences accompanying
one in the wake of unusual prosperity.
Born on the 14th of May 1883, in Nayudupet (Nellore District) of
poor parents, he was inculcated from the start in learning. From school to
college took him to
He took to law as fish to water, and
naturally success came to him in no time. Apprenticed to Mr. P. R. Sundaram Aiyar, who was himself
known to be prodigious in legal studies, Dr. Alladi
with little effort on his part received the appreciation and encouragement
from some of the leaders. It was
no exaggeration if he was sought
also by some of the top seniors to assist them in unravelling
knotty problems of law. Hard work during the initial days by his devotion to
reading of Reports of both English and Indian decided cases, stood him in good
stead; and, added to his natural inclination to be seriously discussing legal
problems, it was no wonder he in a short time became known for his incisive
intellect and acute skill in debating. In 1907, he was enrolled as a Vakil and
in less than two or three years he was able to stand on his own legs without
undergoing much travail of juniordom. To show how he
easily impressed both seniors in the profession and the judges of the High
Court, one telling instance may suffice. Once, on behalf of his own master Mr. Sundaram Aiyar, he was making a
statement of English Law before a Bench presided over by no less a judge than
Sir John Wallis, when, in appreciation of the aptness of it, the judge queried:
“Wherefrom you have got this; is it from any judicial pronouncement or your
own?” At once Mr. V. Krishnaswami Aiyar,
appearing on the other side, was heard to say, “That young man can himself
formulate such a legal proposition.” It was a well-deserved tribute from one
higher in the profession, and Mr. Alladi long
remembered it with pride and gratitude.
From a young junior to be transformed a
senior in his turn with an office crowded with juniors and apprentices, it took
not many years for him to be engaged in any complicated issue of a case,
whether it be of Hindu Law or Land Revenue or Zamindari
Estate. It was said that when Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee of Calcutta paid a visit in 1915, to the Vakils’ Association and Sir K. Srinivasa
Aiyengar, then a judge, introduced Mr. Alladi as a rising member of the Bar, Justice Sir Abdur Rahim (later to be
President of the Legislative Council at the Centre,
in Delhi) who was near, corrected him saying “He has already risen.”
It was quite in due course if Mr. Alladi was appointed the Advocate-General of Madras in
1928; for by then he had established his claim as a birthright to be chosen the
Official Head of the Bar. As Advocate-General he was diligent to be acquainting
himself with the requirements of the new office. With a sense of responsibility,
he would even peruse some of the drafted opinions of his predecessors such as
Sir P. S. Sivaswami Aiyar
and Mr. S. Srinivasa Aiyengar,
in order to be familiar with models of draftmanship
in rendering legal opinions to the Government. He used to be struck by the
lucidity of Mr. Sivaswami Aiyar’s
language and the compact terseness of Srinivasa Aiyengar’s. Himself desirous of wielding a good style, he
would write and re-write his statements more to be precise of language and
substance. As a matter of fact some of his Farewell Addresses to retiring
judges of the High Court were so well-prepared
with poise and dignity of phrasing that they were collected in a special volume
at the time of his Shashtyabdapoorti and presented to
him.
Dr. Alladi Krishnaswami Aiyar was not known
for exhaustive arguments in court. Brief he always tried to be, and careful in
selecting a few points which alone, according to his judgement,
if forcefully pressed would win the case. No set plan would be employed by him,
for his resilient mind often studied the judges and changed his strategem to suit the occasion. If economy in art makes
literature significant, no less was economy in presentation of arguments to
him a matter of art. His sound memory and resourcefulness aided him as nothing
else.
It was a case for issue of a writ of Scire Facias which
came before a Bench presided over by Sir Murray Coutts
Trotter. Mr. Alladi began to change his original
intention, and canvassed a favourable passage from a
book called Tidd’s Practice of
One other matter needs mentioning about his
quick grasp of details. In the Cauvery Arbitration
matter before Justice Page, the judge was taken up with him at the way he piled
up points of intimate Engineering knowledge. No doubt, the Chief Engineer of
the Government of Madras was by his side to brief him on technical points
arising. Still, the readiness of his brain to grasp any unfamiliar subject in a
moment, deserved the compliment offered by the judge. Even before the Indian Government
conceived of the setting up of a Federal Court at
Dr. Alladi appeared
often forgetful of some of the normal claims for attention of an individual
quite prominent in the public eye. But at the same time there was an awareness in him for not missing to notice any able
younger member of the Bar or any fresh client with a case involving
interesting points of law. He sniffed like a war horse for success in the
causes he espoused and more so when confronted by opponents with equally
established reputations as advocates. The apparent satisfaction he revealed in
gaining acclamation for winning a difficult litigation made him never feel
superior in outlook or uncommon of a human being. He loved the company of his
own familiar group while many others in a similar position would have shifted
to newer eminences.
He was elected to the Senate of the
Beyond all his legalistic essayings,
there was a core within him which beckoned him to a “Philosophy of Law” which
the normal lawyer of even much standing never addressed his mind to. If in the
Constituent Assembly he was listened to with rapt attention by no less than Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Dr. Rajendra
Prasad and Dr. Ambedkar, it
was due to his unfailing alertness to observe a changing world where law became
more and more an instrument of social change. Steeped in law and legalism of
every kind, he knew also the limits of law beyond which lay the life of a
people. In an earlier address of his at the Krishnarajendra
Silver Jubilee, 1939, he remarked: “The one important lesson that is learnt by
a lawyer in the course of his studies is that the source of all law is to be
found in the seething life of the people, that the course of legal development
is determined by the progress attained by the nation in the several spheres,
and that the legal system in its turn has shaped progress.” Dr. Alladi was convinced of the vast population’s
responsibility for Constitutions proving useful. For answering the real needs
of a growing nation, he thought of “Adult Franchise” as inevitable for its
progress. He was found saying, that any day the unlettered man in the street
was more educated than the compulsorily educated ones who pose to exercise
properly the gift of franchise.
When all is said of Dr. Alladi’s achievements which certainly buoyed up his spirits, he was never proud or exclusive. His childlike simplicity in acknowledging others’ excellences, his loyalty to friends who, like Mr. Subbaraya Aiyar, had shared with him his joys and woes from the earliest times of their lives, his desire for his own progeny not lagging behind many an ambitious young spirit for achievement in life, his remaining to the last his own self-all these and more draw us to cherishing his memory with admiration and sincerity.
(By
courtesy - The Hindu)