OLD IS GOLD

This post talks about a very old but still relevant advice to young lawyers. It is contained in 1875 Tagore Law Lectures and was always given by my grandfather and father. But before I tell you about it, a bit about us.

My Grandfather Keshav Chandra Singh Chaudhary and My father Virendra Kumar Singh Chaudhary in our house at 37, Tashkent Road, Allahabad in 1970

Our Family

My grandfather, Keshav Chandra Singh Chaudhary, was a leading civil lawyer in Bundelkhand. One can read – how we got title of ‘Chaudhary’ from Emperor Akbar (here); how we became poor for siding with freedom fighters in 1857 and then regained our prestige through education (here); why my grandfather shifted his law practice from Allahabad to Banda (here); he became prominent enough so that  Jawarhar Lal Nehru and Abdul Kalam Azad came for his election rally in 1937 (here); how I (here) and our family remember him (here & here) and what Rajmata Scindia wrote about him and our family ambiance in 1937 in her autobiography ‘Rajpath Se Lokpath Per” (here).

My father Virendra Kumar Singh Chaudhary started his practice at Banda in 1941 and then shifted to Allahabad in 1950. He was a leading lawyer there; he was arrested during emergency and detained in Naini Jail. He later served as Advocate General of UP. The entire Babri masjid – Ram Janam Bhumi case was fought by him and Deoki Nandan J. Though both of them could not go to argue the case as Deoki Nandan J. expired in 2002 and my father stopped practising due to an accident in 2010.  

My grandfather as well as my father were fond of Tagore Law Lectures and especially to the one delivered in 1875. They had a copy of the same for a special purpose. It has been reprinted, and I have also purchased the same. A little bit about these lectures before I tell you about the advice.

Tagore Law Lectures

Prosonno Coomar Tagore was a prominent Indian legal scholar. He set up an endowment in 1868 to support an annual lecture in Calcutta, with objective to promote understanding of law.  The annual lecture series is named after him as ‘Tagore Law Lectures’. It was inaugurated in 1870.

Sir Rash Bihari Ghosh - Wikipedia

The 1875 lectures, titled ‘The Law of Mortgage in India’, were delivered by Sir Rash Behari Ghosh. They essentially dealt with the law of securities (mortgages, lien, subrogation, pledge of moveable property and extinction of securities). 

At that time, there was no statutory law relating to transfer of immovable property, including mortgages.  The courts had to deal with the cases relying upon English law or their notions of justice and fair play. The lecture was the foundational work in Indian property law concerning mortgages and is a classic. Later, it led to enactment of Transfer of Property Act 1882 (TPA).

The Advice

With the enactment of TPA and amendments therein, the book has become obsolete, but my grandfather as well as my father always kept a copy of the same that has also seen several revisions. Whenever a junior came to take their blessings, they would have the book taken out and request the junior to read the last paragraph of the lectures loudly that was slightly modified than it was originally given. The modified version (edited and sub-paragraphed by me) is as follows:

“A mere beadroll of cases, however useful to the practitioner, would have been of doubtful utility to the student. Hence, an attempt has been made to explain ... the principles on which the law is founded. ‘He knoweth not the law, who knoweth not the reason thereof’ is a saying which one should always bear in mind ... a careful study of general principles, as illustrated in different systems of law, will not be wholly useless, when one enters upon the practical duties of the profession. 

It may not be given to every one of us to attain high forensic skill, but ... the time given to the scientific study of law is never wholly thrown away; for legal practice is not a thing apart from legal sciences. 

However, a warning may be given that laborious days are not always crowned with riches or honour; for the race is not invariably to the swift nor the battle to the strong and professional distinction may be won in more ways than many of us perhaps imagine.

But a higher guerdon awaits those who pursue learning for its own sake; and all are invited to join that noble band to which so many are called and so few are chosen; for the dust of daily life tends to deaden those finer sentiments to which life should owe its savour. 

This does not mean that is to live in cloistered seclusion, detached from the world and all its pursuits. What is wanted is that one should not be too eager in the chase for money, position or power. Here, one cannot fall into the habit of prizing low and gross ideals without suffering deterioration in one’s intellectual as well as moral fibre. 

It is advisable, therefore, betimes to labour and to wait; and if one is ever tempted to join in the fierce hunt after the vulgar prizes of the world, it should be remembered that, after all, the successful man as he is called looks sleek. And is not unfrequently.

‘A poor player

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,

And then is heard no more’”. 

An advice that young minds should follow rather to be in mad rush to earn money.

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