Editorial February 2015

 CHIEF EDITOR                                                                                  THOTA HANUMAIAH  

EDITORIAL                                    FEBRUARY                                             2015                                                               

A  LEGEND IN INDIAN JUDICIARY, A CENTENARIAN AND A RETIRED SUPREME COURT JUDGE, Mr. JUSTICE V.R.KRISHNA IYAR  BORN ON NOVEMBER 15, 1915 AND EXPIRED ON DECEMBER 4, 2014,   LEAVING BEHIND HIS INDELIBLE IMPRINTS IN THE DELIVERY OF JUSTICE.  

We express a deep sense of grief at his demise. Although he is not alive physically among us, he lives through the indomitable spirit of his judgments which stands as a pole star to the Indian Judiciary. Justice V.R.Krishna Iyer was a multifaceted personality and had donned the role of a lawyer, politician, minister, judge and a jurist. He was a minister in the first communist Government of Kerala state, headed by comrade E M S Namboodripad. He was elevated to bench as a judge of Kerala High Court in the year 1968 .He was a member of Law Commission. He retired as a Supreme Court Judge on November 14, 1980.He was one of the four judges who pioneered judicial activism and public interest litigation, the other judges being P.N.Bhagwati, D.A.Desai and O.Chinnappareddy. Justice Iyer’s judgments humanized prison jurisprudence making it mandatory to segregate under trials from convicts and imposing curbs on hand cuffing and solitary confinement.

Justice Krishna Iyer defined fundamental Rights as well as charters of freedom, not just to acquire and hold wealth, but freedom from poverty and misery. The foundation for a whole jurisprudence was laid by reading Article 14 as a charter against non-arbitrariness. Mr. Justice Krishna Iyer made an unparallel and most significant contribution to the development of constitutional law, in particular, by his creative, expansive and humanistic interpretation of Article 21 which guarantees life and personal liberty to every person in India. Article 21 is so paramount, because the exercise of other freedom essentially depends on this most basic of all freedoms. The contribution he made to the development of constitutional law is not a mere interpretation, but rather the revelation of new meaning, fresh content and deep purpose in Article 21. This act of his judicial acumen in development of constitutional law has earned him a permanent place in the hearts and minds of needy and the neglected, the destitute and despised, the poor and the suffering-in fact the people of India, besides attaining a distinct rank among   the eminent Jurists, Globally. It is not an exaggeration to say that, perhaps without any exception his is the only judgments which are referred to, by the jurists all over the world.

Further, Justice Iyer by refusing an outright stay on the verdict setting aside Indira Gandhi’s election, he showed that however high and mighty one may be, the rules of the game do not change. At that time, this verdict came to be known as the Krishna Iyerisation of Indian jurisprudence.

The working class is indebted to justice Krishna Iyer for, in a short period of 7 years as Supreme Court judge, he gave a new shift to the interpretation of labour laws which were so helpful to the working class, which nobody has done ever before. By widening the scope of Article 12 of the Constitution, Justice Iyer gave a Constitutional status to the public sector employees thereby, the employees gained a whole range of constitutional guarantees. Justice Iyer’s contribution to labour jurisprudence is enormous and his judgments were the products of industrious workmanship and judicial statesmanship that have won approval from his own colleagues on the bench who came from diverse background with differing opinions. He delivered many a judgment in protecting the interest of workmen in many spheres Viz; Expansion of “locus standi” of persons in moving the court when public sector corporations indulge in arbitrary action, he laid down parameters to question the actions of the state; He broadly defined true meaning of the term Industry and protected thousands of workers under ID Act; and also in the matters of granting relief to dismissed workmen who went on strike, as also in the matter of retrenchment of workmen he  ruled that the court has power to go behind an order of termination simpliciter to pierce the veil of the real intention of the employer and if found not bonafide, the workmen stand reinstated and so on. In a judgment delivered by him, he has upheld the right of an employee to be heard in a departmental disciplinary action, even when the employee was convicted by a court of law on the same charges. 

The All India Loco Running Staff Association, S.R, had the benefit of consultation with retired Justice Krishna Iyer on working conditions, victimization and other issues and he also addressed a convention organized by Railway trade unions on inhuman working conditions, human rights violations and victimization in 1990, in Kerala area of Southern Railway.

During the decade of 1990’s the southern railway administration, in utter disregard to the statutory 10 hours duty rule, deliberately resorted to coercive methods to forcibly extract over work beyond human endurance, from loco running staff, virtually treating them as bonded labour. The staffs that resisted the onslaught and demanded relief enroute on completion of stipulated duty hours were dealt with ruthlessly. In that, more than 350 minor penalty, 20 major penalty charge sheets were issued to the loco men besides suspending 25 loco men.  But the Loco men stood bravely resisting the onslaught. The administration, with the intention of crushing the movement by terror, had resorted to a ghastly measure of getting the loco men arrested for claiming relief after completion of their stipulated duty hours. In that ghastly act of administration, an Assistant Loco Pilot namely R.Santhoshkumar of PGT was arrested for claiming relief and was put behind the bars for 3 days.

     At that juncture, justice Krishna Iyer came to the rescue of Loco men. He attended a big “Human Rights Convention” organized by railway trade unions in Shoranur, in the month of august 1990 in support of the agitating staff. He questioned the validity of the notorious Railway board order dated 03-04-1981 and condemned it as it was opposed to the provisions of the Constitution. He termed the order as inhuman, violative of national and international labour laws and against the spirit of constitution and leading to a bonded labour system of working in Railways. The Bench of CAT, Ernakulam which heard these cases of 10 hours duty rule and victimization had also described the draconian order of Railway board dated 03-04-1981 in the similar words as was condemned by justice. Krishna Iyer and struck down the same on 10-01-1992, granting much needed relief to the victimized Loco men.

      Mr. Krishna Iyer was the only advocate volunteered to appear for the peasants and communists before various courts against the brutal attack of the land lords and police. So, he was jailed at central prison Kannanur for one month as a detainee and to our knowledge, he was only the one Supreme Court judge who had an experience of jail life.  

Myself, In the process of pursuing 1981 strike victimization cases with advocates, happened to be in the High court of Andhra Pradesh in Hyderabad when the members of the bar association were addressed by Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer, who in his speech categorically stated that in order to meet the ends of justice new precedents to be created and new words to be coined as he has done during his tenure.

The Bhopal, gas tragedy caused by union carbide company of America has left   thousands of people dead and many thousands crippled as was the case of nuclear Bombing of Hiroshima by America at the end of Second World War. Comparing Gas tragedy to Hiroshima bombing he coined new words Viz; “Bopashima” and “Gasassination”.

Justice Krishna Iyer revolutionized the Jurisprudence by breathing a new life into the institution of Supreme Court making it to stand tall and powerful of its kind in the world and its work has shown that it is sui generis. We salute Mr. Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer for all that Noble service he has rendered.                                                                                                           THOTA  HANUMAIAH.