“Interestingly, Setalvad was not the first choice of the Nehru Govt. (for the AG’s post). They had first approached an old barrister from Calcutta who declined the offer due to his old age and ailing health. Subsequently, Ambedkar resigned due to his disagreement with the cabinet. Now, the Union also needed a good Law minister. There were two options for the post of the AG. One was Setalvad – the other was a brilliant barrister from Calcutta – Ashok Kumar Sen. The then CM of Bengal – Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy is said to have told Nehru that Sen had political ambitions. Thus, the dilemma was remedied. Setalvad became the first AG while Sen was appointed the Law Minister. Both individuals are known to have held their respective offices for the longest time in the history of India. It is said that they were always at loggerheads. The rest is, of course, history….”
— ATL—
Ranjit Udheshi an infamous case of obscenity in the Indian Penal Code, dealt with the selling of a D.H. Lawrence book, ‘Lady Chatterly’s Lover’ which the Indian Sup. Ct. applying the Hicklin Test held to contain obscene materials. The judge who wrote the decision of the court, later admitted in his speech that he too read that book as a student of Cambridge in 1929, however not due to some academic curiosity as a law student, but due to its “titillating” content. The judge is no other than Justice Hidayatullah.
— Republic of Rhetoric, Pp. 122 —
On 13th March, 1968, a madman entered the Chief Justice’s Courtroom and sprung up on to the bench with a knife in hand, to attack the three judges who were presiding over a civil appeal. Fortunately, Justice Hidayatullah, who had received a letter upon his recent elevation as the Chief Justice, which said he would be murdered soon, was a man prepared for all eventualities (Incidentally, the Chief Justice was also a former Boy Scout). He had been planning to use a huge glass inkstand which was kept on the bench as a weapon, in case any incident like this occurred. But he had no time to pick it up as the assailant had already attacked Justice Grover, and the Chief had to rush in to save his colleague. The man was soon pulled away and apprehended, and Justice Grover survived with a few minor bruises.
During the trial in a Court of Session, the man yelled and swore at Justice Grover who had come to give testimony, but when Chief Justice Hidayatullah appeared, he started complaining to him about how he was being beaten up by the cops, and the Chief Justice cautioned the constables, after which the man refused to “cross-examine” the Chief Justice.
— M. Hidayatullah, My Own Boswell (Arnold-Heinemann, 1980) pp. 218-223 —
When the Reorganisation of Madhya Pradesh happened in 1956, the High Court was shifted to Jabalpur from Nagpur, as the latter was to go to the State of Bombay. It so happened that the Nagpur High Court had an excellent library, and a book-sharing formula was arrived at in a meeting between M. Hidayatullah and M.C. Chagla, the Chief Justices of the Nagpur and Bombay High Courts respectively.
The formula was this – from the High Court Library, one copy of every book which had a duplicate would be left behind, but every book having only a singular copy would be taken by the Madhya Pradesh High Court.
Prior to this meeting, the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh had asked Justice Hidayatullah to execute this plan before the reorganisation, but the Chief Justice protested as this was a matter between two high courts. He soon came to regret his protestations, as Justice Chagla simply informed the person responsible for the division of the books that Bombay was to keep all the books which had a singular copy in existence, and only those books which had duplicates could go to Jabalpur. Justice Hidayatullah was shocked at this breach of faith.
A lot of confusion and dispute followed, and ultimately guards from Bombay were stationed at the Nagpur High Court to make sure that nothing went outside the premises, including typewriters, stationary and printed forms which could be of no use to the Bombay High Court.
— M. Hidayatullah, My Own Boswell (Arnold-Heinemann, 1980) pp. 157-160 —
C.K. Daphtary, who later became the attorney general of India, was arguing a case relating to stock exchange transactions before Justice Somjee in the Bombay High Court. It was generally known that Daphtary had dabbled in the stock exchange and lost heavily. During arguments, Daphtary insisted on putting a relevant question to a witness but the judge did not permit that and, moreover, made a nasty remark, “Mr Daphtary, you would of course be very familiar with stock exchange matters.” Daphtary kept his cool. Later when a law reporter cited before the judge was not in the judge’s library and therefore handed over from the Bar, the judge testily remarked, “Mr Daphtary, there is a bug (insect) in the law reporter.” Daphtary retorted: “My lord, this is not the first time that a bug has travelled from the Bar to the bench”. There was stunned silence in the court as Justice Somjee, who was appointed to the bench from the Bar, sank into gloomy silence. There was widespread appreciation of Daphtary’s memorable retort.
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