Signing Off From India

I had the opportunity to speak to the Madras Bar Assocation today and while I was at the High Court I came upon this quote which I liked. It is from the first Indian Judge to ever sit on the Madras High Court, Sir Muthuswamy Aiyar (1878-1895):

“The Court of Justice is a sacred temple, the judges presiding over it are, though men, the humble instruments in the interests of truth and those who enter this holy edifice with unholy thought or desecrate it with unworthy actions, are traitors to their country. Those of you who may rise to the Bench should recollect that the power you may be called upon to exercise in the name of your sovereign is according to one of your ancestors a Power Divine. You should remember, if you desire to preferential eminence, that the law is both a science and an art and that success whether at the Bar or on the Bench, will depend upon the clearness with which you pass through complicated mass of facts in the midst of animated and often eloquent addresses, taking in as it were by intention each fact, referring to it its appropriate principle, and estimating its legal value within a given time. The study of law, as has been well said, is in a higher sense the study of philosophy of social life. The art you have to practice is a noble one.”

I have enjoyed blogging from India.