Why are Indians, regardless of class or community, one of the most litigious people in the world? Highly placed public men are prone to ascribe the heavy backlogs in Indian courts to the apathy of the judiciary and to the felt necessities of the times in which we live. But then, when one of us has a cause for action, real or assumed, against the other, why does he say, ?I will show you your proper place by taking you to a court,?? The inevitable truth is that fundamentally the common man and woman seek justice and aspire to achieve it only through the process of law, howsoever long and expensive. How true it sounds especially when we read this view expressed by Justice Y.V. Chandrachud, former Chief Justice of India.
The author begins the book by narrating incidents from his personal life, particularly his wife'sill health and providential escape from the clutches of death. He also narrates how difficult it was for him and his wife to make the two ends meet as a District and Sessions Judge at Trichur. He says his wife even complained to their friend, who was an IAS officer and who had persuaded him to aspire for judgeship, ?When you encouraged my husband to become a judge, perhaps you did not know there would be a steep fall in the income.? Eventually the two learned to live a frugal but dignified life with a limited income.
Since the book contains the details of judicial cases that the author handled during his tenure, it may not be possible to describe all of them but to cite an example, a very interesting case shall be mentioned here to show how competently he handled the case.
A young girl, Rethi Menon, who had secured a job in Bangalore after passing her degree course in economics, was travelling in an express train one night to Trichur for better prospects. While moving to the washbasin to wash her face, suddenly the train jerked violently and she was thrown out of the moving train. Her spinal cord got ruptured and as she landed on the ground, the wheels ran over her right arm, severing it from the joint. Just sample the way the author describes the incident: ?The train not knowing what it did to one of its genuine passengers, continued its normal running, leaving the maimed girl on the track itself.? As she lay bleeding, another train came along on the same track half an hour later and, the train ?without knowing that a horribly maimed human being was lying ahead, ran over her right leg, amputating that leg also.?
After some time, she was spotted by the driver of a locomotive who was shunting a railway engine and taken to a hospital as a paraplegic. Much later she claimed compensation from the railway department where its Tribunal awarded Rs six lakhs. But the department dragged the hapless girl to the High Court of Kerala where the divisional bench decided to slash the compensation. Rethi moved
the Supreme Court where the author had to write down the judgement of the court. He wrote, ??Misfortunes do not come single? is an old adage but even the author of that adage would not have imagined that multiplicity of misfortunes would visit the same person in a series on the same night, that too within the same hour. One may ask aghast, ?Can the destiny be so cruel to a damsel???
The rules of the Schedule stipulated in the Railways Act said that compensation for death or injury prior to 1.11.97 was Rs two lakhs but since the Schedule was amended with effect from 1.11.1997, the compensation payable in the case of the ?present nature? ?shall be rupees four lakhs?. ?What a woeful discrimination!? writes the shocked author. He decided to discuss the case threadbare with other fellow judges and presented their argument in favour of enhancement of compensation to such deserving victims by adopting meaningful and humane interpretation of the letter of the law. The amount was ordered to carry interest at the bank rate until payment had been made.
Flavoured with such cases, the book under review helps one to understand what goes on behind the judge'smind, what are his dilemmas and his limitations. This is not an autobiography because there is no account in it of the major portions of the life the author lived thus far. It is only a bunch of memoirs of his judicial career, which may interest the readers for their inspirational value.
The author has given the book this unusual title because of the story he had heard of King Solomon who was given two bouquets of flowers to differentiate which were real. He looked at the two bunches which were identical and suddenly found honeybees hovering around one bunch and this helped him to give his apt verdict. Similarly, the author of the book says, ?I am beholden to the Almighty for bestowing such honeybees on all occasions when I needed guidance; sometimes such honeybees appeared in the form of an answer to a query. At other times they came in the form of a document or in the form of a flash through my inner mind. I was able distinguish the just from the unjust not on account of any sagacity of my own or the function of my cognitive faculty, but by the guidance of such honeybees.?
This book will be of prime interest to lawyers, advocates and those studying law.
(Gyan Publishing House, 5 Ansari Road, Darya Ganj, New Delhi-110 002.)
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