Interview With The Author Of The Book 'MN Rao : The Renaissance Man Of Law'

Justice M. N. Rao turned 90 this April. Across his distinguished career, Justice Rao has been in various roles- a law secretary, a district judge, a High Court judge, Chief Justice of the HP High Court, a Senior Advocate before the Supreme Court, Chairperson of the Backward Class Commission, a philanthropist, and a public intellectual.To mark his 90th birthday and celebrate the life and work of Justice Rao, Professor Amita Dhanda, Professor Emerita at NALSAR, who considers Justice Rao as her mentor as well as well-wisher, has written a biographical monograph titled- 'M.N. Rao: The Renaissance Man of Law' published by Eastern Book Company (EBC). In this conversation with Udit Singh, Prof. Dhanda talks about the thinking behind writing a biographical monograph, Justice Rao's various legal roles, and how these roles feed into each other? The conversation further dwells into concepts of integrity, law as an instrument of social change, accountability, social responsibility, and the relationship between law and justice, through Justice Rao's career. US: You state in the Preface to the book that you were planning to do a curated volume of Justice Rao's writings but abandoned that idea when you encountered Justice Rao's memoirs which also included excerpts from some of his landmark judgments. What propelled you to write this biographical monograph?AD: I was planning to do the curated volume as a tribute. And I wanted to pay that tribute because I felt that Justice Rao had over a lifetime ceaselessly contributed to public life without the razmataz that accompanies other public intellectuals. At no point was his doing the right thing about earning plaudits for himself. The curated volume of his writings like the memoir would have primarily been Justice Rao speaking about his own life. At best a self-appraisal. There is a difference between how we see ourselves and how others view us. It is also difficult to see the picture when you are in the frame. I was convinced that Justice Rao's work needed to be externally viewed in order to make a more holistic evaluation. If I take an Aristotelian view I would say that Justice Rao has lived a life worthy of emulation and for people to follow it they must know what he has done: hence the biography.US: Why did you title the book 'The Renaissance Man of Law'? AD: A man of many parts is how the Renaissance man is commonly described. The book shows how Rao performed a range of legal roles from judge, lawyer, legal bureaucrat and legal academic. Each of these roles were performed with competence and commitment. The title captured both the range and the depth of Rao's manifold contribution to Indian law. US: As Law Secretary of undivided Andhra Pradesh in the early 1980s, Justice Rao worked with five Chief Ministers across very different political orientations. What does Justice Rao's tenure as Law Secretary reveal about the relationship between law, bureaucracy, and political power?AD: Rao's stint as law secretary shows that a respectful relationship between the political and the permanent executive requires boundaries to be observed by both. The law secretary is obligated to provide constitutionally informed legal counsel, without trying to curry favour with the politician in power. For such counsel to contribute to lawful governance, the chief minister needs to be receptive to advice. And if the advice is rejected then the politicians need to assume responsibility for their own choices and not use the bureaucrats as scapegoats. At the same time the bureaucrat needs to concede that the courage to make the leap from what the law is to what it ought to be primarily comes from the politician. The Andhra Pradesh Amendment to the Hindu Succession Act giving women coparcenary rights came despite the cautionary advice of the Law Secretary because the Chief Minister wanted to come true on his electoral promise. That the Law Secretary then drafted that law in record time without demur is where the permanent executive let progress happen. US: You have discussed some cases (Sakinala Harinath, Karamchedu massacre) that were argued or decided by Justice Rao. Taking these as background, what kinds of legal and social questions drove Justice Rao across his work as a judge and advocate?AD: I would not club his work as a judge and as a lawyer. As a judge he primarily had to decide according to the work allocated to him. I have in the book shown the patterns I found in Rao's decision-making. He believed in observing boundaries between the various organs of the State thus neither taking over the job of the executive or legislature nor cede adjudicative ground. It is due to this outlook that the Sakinala Harinath case the AP High Court bench headed by him found Article 323A unconstitutional because it wrested the High Court's power of judicial review. A judge, I have pointed out needs to examine an issue from all angles, weigh consequences and then arrive at a decision. Be it guarding personal...

Interview With The Author Of The Book 'MN Rao : The Renaissance Man Of Law'

Udit Singh

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Udit Singh

Interview With The Author Of The Book 'MN Rao : The Renaissance Man Of Law'

Udit Singh

This is a premium content Available exclusively to Our subscribers

INR 1099+GST

Tags

Udit Singh

This is a premium content
Available exclusively to
Our subscribers