To The Best of My Memory

Email

Whatsapp

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Copy link

Born in Satara, Maharashtra, on March 16, 1901, Prahlad Balacharya Gajendragadkar was the fifth among six son and two daughters of Shri Raghavendracharya alias Balacharya and Laxmi. Shri Raghavendracharya shifted to Satara from Gajendragad at the invitation of the Maharaja of Satara.

After a brilliant academic career, winning honours throughout, P. B. Gajendragadkar passed LL.B. in 1926 and joined the Bombay Bar on the Appellate Side. In the early years he edited the "Hindu Law Quarterly. His critical edition of the classic "Dattaka Mimamsa earned him great reputation.

Before long he became the acknowledged leader of the Bar, well- known for his forensic skill and legal acumen. In January 1945, he was appointed a judge of the Bombay High Court. In January 1956 he was elevated to the Supreme Court Bench and rose to be the Chief Justice of India in 1964. As Chief Justice of India, his contribution to the development of Constitutional and Industrial Law has been great and unique.

His intense humanism and belief in the motto "Work is Worship" would not confine him in the narrow field of Law. He took keen and active interest in the country's Social, Cultural and Educational affairs. Twice in 1953 and 1954 he was the President of the Social Reform Conference held in Jalgaon and Pune and like justice Ranade and Gopal Ganesh Agarkar organised campaigns for eradicating the evils of casteism, untouchability, superstition and obscurantism among Hindus to promote integration and national unity.

He served the Bombay University firstly as a Member of the Syndicate while he was a judge of the Bombay High Court. After retirement as Chief Justice of India, he was appointed as Honorary Vice-Chancellor for five years from March 1966. He organised the All India University Teachers' and Students' Camp representing 58 Universities and the National Integration Colloquium held in the Bhavan's Andheri Campus in May 1968. At the request of the Prime Minister, Smt. Indira Gandhi, he held the honorary office of Chancellor of the Gandhigram Rural Institute in South India for five Years from 1975 to 1980.

My role in persuading Mr. P. B. Gajendragadkar to write his reminiscences forming this book has been correctly described by him in Chapter 1. Mr. Gajendragadkar had lived a very rich and full life filling several offices with great distinction. In the course of his public life he had witnessed many events, had met several distinguished and other persons, and had taken part in many important projects. Though he had not kept any notes or diary touching upon the events in his life, he has been able to recall all things about which he has written in this book with great precision. For a person with such a graphic memory as Mr. Gajendragadkar who could recite passages from books which he had read ten, twenty or thirty years ago, the task of writing his reminiscences was not difficult. His memory has not failed him and it can be safely said that there is no inaccuracy in the account of any of the events given by him in this book.

An aspect of the book which should be noted is that it is a first-hand account of the events, things and persons and no part of the book is based upon hearsay. There are no tales based upon gossip: whatever Mr. Gajendragadkar has written is based upon his personal knowledge and is not borrowed from any report given by a third person. I have taken the liberty of clarifying certain things and commenting upon some matters on which Mr. Gajendragadkar has spoken. Those comments of mine are mentioned in the footnotes with my initials.

I retired as Chief Justice of India on 6 March, 1966 and returned to Bombay to take over as Honorary Vice-Chancellor of Bombay University. Some publishers and many friends suggested to me that I should write my reminiscences. My polite, consistent and firm reply to all of them was that I was still looking forward to do some good work and I did not agree that the stage had arrived in my life when I should look back. I did not either think that I had achieved such distinction in my life as the younger generation would like to be informed about. Thereafter having worked in the University for six years (1966-71). I went to New Delhi in September 1971 at the personal invitation of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, conveyed through Law Minister H. R. Gokhale, to accept the honorary chairmanship of the Law Commission. The tenure of the post was three years, but I did a second term. On return to Bombay in August 1977, I decided that I would lead a quiet life. My friend Mr. S. Rama- krishnan, Executive Secretary of the Bharatiya Vidya Shavan, Bombay, came to me with an invitation of the Bhavan to be the General Editor of the Bhavan's project to bring out a new edition of the ten principal Upanishads. The plan was that I should write the general introduction to the series, edit and translate the ten Upanishads and make my comments in the light of what I regarded to be the basic philosophical outlook and message of these inspiring works.