A Suitable Boy(246)
For no apparent reason he suddenly thought of an extremely unsociable English doctor, a friend of his, who (like him) would escape from parties given in his own house. He would claim a sudden emergency – perhaps a dying patient – and disappear. He would then go to the Benga Club, where he would sit on a high chair and drink as many whiskies as he could. The doctor’s wife, who threw these huge parties, was fairly eccentric herself. She would go around on a bicycle with a large hat, from under which she could see everything that went on in the world without – or so she imagined – being recognized. It was said of her that she once arrived for dinner at Firpos with some black lace underwear thrown around her shoulders. Apparently, vague as she was, she had thought it was a stole.
Mr Justice Chatterji could not help smiling, but the smile disappeared as he looked at the two pages he had opened for comparison. In microcosm those two pages reflected the passage of an empire and the birth of two countries from the idea – tragic and ignorant – that people of different religions could not live peaceably together in one.
With the red pencil that he used for notations in his law-books, Mr Justice Chatterji marked a small ‘x’ against those names in the 1947 volume that did not appear in 1948, just one year later. This is what the list looked like when he had done:
CALCUTTA HIGH COURT
1947
CHIEF JUSTICES
The Hon’ble Sir Arthur Trevor Harries, Kt., Bar-at-law.
” ” ” Roopendra Kumar Mitter, Kt., M.Sc., M.L. (Actg.).
PUISNE JUDGES
x ” ” ” Nurul Azeem Khundkar, Kt., B.A. (Cantab.), LL.B., Bar-at-law.
x ” ” ” Norman George Armstrong Edgley, Kt., M.A., I.C.S., Bar-at-law.
” ” Dr Bijan Kumar Mukherjee, M.A., D.L.
” ” Mr Charu Chandra Biswas, C.I.E., M.A., B.L.
x ” ” ” Ronald Francis Lodge, B.A. (Cantab.), I.C.S.
x ” ” ” Frederick William Gentle, Bar-at-law.
” ” ” Amarendra Nath Sen, Bar-at-law.
” ” ” Thomas James Young Roxburgh, C.I.E., B.A., I.C.S., Bar-at-law.
x ” ” ” Abu Saleh Mohamed Akram, B.L.
” ” ” Abraham Lewis Blank, M.A., I.C.S., Bar-at-law.
” ” ” Sudhi Ranjan Das, B.A., LL.B. (Lond.), Bar-at-law.
x ” ” ” Ernest Charles Ormond, Bar-at-law.
” ” ” William McCormick Sharpe, D.S.O., B.A., I.C.S.
” ” ” Phani Bhusan Chakravartti, M.A., B.L.
” ” ” John Alfred Clough, Bar-at-law.
x ” ” ” Thomas Hobart Ellis, M.A. (Oxon.), I.C.S.
” ” ” Jogendra Narayan Mazumdar, C.I.E., M.A., B.L., Bar-at-law.
x ” ” ” Amir-Ud-din Ahmad, M.B.E., M.A., B.L.
x ” ” ” Amin Ahmad, Bar-at-law.
” ” ” Kamal Chunder Chunder, B.A. (Cantab.), I.C.S., Bar-at-law.
” ” ” Gopendra Nath Das, M.A., B.L.
There were a few more names at the bottom of the 1948 list, his own included. But half the English judges and all the Muslim judges had gone. There was not a single Muslim judge in the Calcutta High Court in 1948.
For a man who in his friendships and acquaintance looked upon religion and nationality as both significant and irrelevant, the changing composition of the High Court was a cause for sadness. Soon, of course, the British ranks were further depleted. Now only Trevor Harries (still the Chief justice) and Roxburgh remained.
The appointment of judges had always been a matter of the greatest importance for the British, and indeed (except for a few scandals such as in the Lahore High Court in the Forties) the administration of justice under the British had been honest and fairly swift. (Needless to say, there were plenty of repressive laws, but that was a different, if related, matter.) The Chief Justice would sound a man out directly or indirectly if he felt that he was a fit candidate for the bench, and if he indicated that he was interested, would propose his name to the government.
Occasionally, political objections were raised by the government, but in general a political man would not be sounded out in the first place, nor – if he were sounded out by the Chief justice – would he be keen to accept. He would not want to be stifled in the expression of his views. Besides, if another Quit India agitation came along, he might have to pass a number of judgments that to his own mind would be unconscionable. Sarat Bose, for instance, would not have been offered judgeship by the British, nor would he have accepted if he had been.
After the British left, matters did not greatly change, particularly in Calcutta, which continued to have an Englishman as Chief Justice. Mr Justice Chatterji considered Sir Arthur Trevor Harries to be a good man and a good Chief Justice. He now recalled his own “interview” with him when, as one of the leading barristers of Calcutta, he had been asked to visit him in his chambers.