Courtroom Anecdotes & Legends

1909

Patel and the Telegram in Court

Duty before grief

In January 1909, while Vallabhbhai Patel was cross-examining a witness in a murder trial at Anand, he was handed a telegram. He read it, put it in his pocket and finished the cross-examination. Only afterwards did he tell those around him that it reported the death of his wife, Jhaverba, in a Bombay hospital. The story, told by his biographers, became part of his legend of iron will.

• His wife Jhaverba died in 1909.

Legend

"The Examinee Is Better Than the Examiner"

Rajendra Prasad's answer sheet

A popular legend says that an examiner wrote on one of Rajendra Prasad's answer sheets at Calcutta University, "The examinee is better than the examiner." Prasad was indeed an outstanding student who topped the university's entrance examination, but the story of the remark has never been documented and should be treated as a legend.

1976

Khanna's Words to His Sister

"It is going to cost me the Chief Justiceship"

Justice H.R. Khanna later recounted that before delivering his dissent in ADM Jabalpur he told his sister that he had prepared a judgment that was going to cost him the Chief Justiceship of India. In January 1977 he was superseded and resigned.

24 June 1975

The Vacation Judge and the Prime Minister

Krishna Iyer's conditional stay

After the Allahabad High Court set aside Indira Gandhi's election, her appeal came before Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer as the Supreme Court's vacation judge. On 24 June 1975 he granted only a conditional stay: she could remain Prime Minister and attend Parliament, but could not vote or draw a salary as an MP. The Emergency was proclaimed the next night.

• Conditional stay on 24 June 1975.
• Emergency proclaimed on the night of 25 June 1975.

1975

Only the Judge Rises

The Prime Minister in the witness box

When Indira Gandhi appeared as a witness in the Allahabad High Court in March 1975 — the first time a sitting Prime Minister testified in an Indian court — Justice Jagmohanlal Sinha is widely reported to have directed that no one should rise when she entered, since the courtroom rises only for the judge.

• First sitting Prime Minister to testify in court.

24 April 1973

The "View by the Majority"

A controversial summary

At the end of Kesavananda Bharati, Chief Justice Sikri circulated a short summary, "View by the Majority", stating that Parliament could not alter the basic structure. It was signed by nine of the thirteen judges, although the individual opinions differed considerably, and scholars have long debated what exactly the majority held.

• Signed by nine of the thirteen judges.

1940–2020

The Swami Behind the Case

Kesavananda Bharati

Swami Kesavananda Bharati, head of the Edneer Mutt in Kasaragod, Kerala, filed the petition challenging Kerala's land reform laws that became India's most famous constitutional case. He died in September 2020, aged 79.

• Head of the Edneer Mutt, Kerala.
• Died in September 2020.

March 1931

Bhagat Singh's Last Demand

Shoot us like prisoners of war

Shortly before their execution, Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru wrote to the Governor of Punjab that, as they had been convicted of waging war against the King, they should be treated as prisoners of war and shot by a firing squad rather than hanged. The request was ignored.

1969

A Chief Justice Receives a US President

Acting President Hidayatullah

As acting President of India in July–August 1969, Chief Justice M. Hidayatullah received US President Richard Nixon on his visit to India — a Chief Justice receiving a visiting head of state as head of state.

October 2019

The Torn Map

Drama in the Ayodhya hearing

On the last day of the Ayodhya hearings in October 2019, senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan, appearing for the Muslim parties, tore up a pictorial map that the other side tried to place on record, with the Chief Justice's leave. The moment made headlines across the country.

May 2018

The Court at 2 a.m.

Karnataka's floor test

After the Karnataka Governor invited B.S. Yediyurappa to form a government in May 2018, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court sat through the night, from around 2 a.m., on a petition by the Congress and JD(S). It later ordered an early floor test, and Yediyurappa resigned before it.

20 March 2020

The Last-Night Hearing in the Nirbhaya Case

Hours before the hanging

In the early hours of 20 March 2020, a Supreme Court bench heard a last-minute plea from one of the Nirbhaya convicts and dismissed it; the four convicts were hanged at Tihar Jail at 5:30 a.m. that morning.

1891–1892

Gandhi Freezes in Court

The barrister who could not speak

In his first case, at a small causes court in Bombay, Gandhi rose to cross-examine a witness but could not think of a single question. He sat down, told the client's agent to engage another lawyer and returned his fee. He later called the experience a lesson that shaped his humility.

Bombay High Court

The Plaque in Courtroom 46

Tilak's words on the wall

The courtroom in the Bombay High Court where Tilak was convicted of sedition in 1908 carries a plaque with his words from the dock, that there are higher powers that rule the destiny of things, and that it may be the will of Providence that the cause he represents prospers more by his suffering than by his remaining free. The same court had once sent him to prison.

1940s

The Teenage Lawyer

Ram Jethmalani's exemption

Ram Jethmalani finished his law degree at 17. As the Bar rules then required advocates to be 21, he petitioned for an exemption, and a special resolution allowed him to start practising at 18.

2019

Standing at 92

Parasaran in the Ayodhya hearings

During the Ayodhya hearings in 2019, 92-year-old K. Parasaran argued standing for hours; when the Chief Justice offered him a chair, he is reported to have declined, saying that Indian tradition required him to stand while arguing before the court.

1950–1958

A Court in a Parliament

The Chamber of Princes

For its first eight years, the Supreme Court sat in the Chamber of Princes in Parliament House, where the Federal Court had sat before it. Judges' chambers were improvised in the building until the Tilak Marg building opened in 1958.

1916

Regina Guha's Case

Are women "persons"?

When Regina Guha applied to be enrolled as a pleader in 1916, a full bench of the Calcutta High Court held that the word "person" in the Legal Practitioners Act did not include women. It took the Legal Practitioners (Women) Act of 1923 to open the profession to women.

1975

Palkhivala Returns the Brief

He withdrew as Indira Gandhi's counsel after the Emergency

Nani Palkhivala had agreed to argue Indira Gandhi's appeal against the Allahabad verdict; after the Emergency and mass arrests, he returned the brief.

1975

Nariman Resigns as Additional Solicitor General

He quit the day after the Emergency was declared

Fali S. Nariman resigned as Additional Solicitor General in protest on 26 June 1975, one of the few officials to do so.

1976

The New York Times on Justice Khanna

"Someone will surely erect a monument to Justice H.R. Khanna"

After his ADM Jabalpur dissent, a New York Times editorial said that if India ever found its way back to freedom and democracy, someone would surely erect a monument to him.

1927

Ambedkar Burns the Manusmriti

A symbolic protest at Mahad

On 25 December 1927, during the Mahad Satyagraha, Ambedkar and his followers burned the Manusmriti; the day is marked as Manusmriti Dahan Din.

1929

Jinnah Defends the Hunger Strikers

A speech in the Central Legislative Assembly

Jinnah opposed a bill to allow trials in the absence of hunger-striking accused, defending Bhagat Singh and his comrades' right to be heard.

1858

Lincoln and the Almanac

Moonlight and a murder trial

Defending Duff Armstrong, Abraham Lincoln used an almanac to show the moon was too low for a witness to have seen the crime as claimed.

1970

Lord Denning's Opening Lines

"It happened on April 19, 1964. It was bluebell time in Kent."

Denning's judgments began like stories; this one, in Hinz v. Berry, is among the most quoted openings in English law.

1685

Judge Jeffreys and the Bloody Assizes

The hanging judge of English legend

After Monmouth's Rebellion, Judge George Jeffreys sentenced hundreds to death or transportation, becoming a byword for judicial cruelty.