It is 6 am. Ninety-eight-year-old Pachuveettil Balasubramania Menon is bent over his desk at his home in Puthur, Kerala preparing legal arguments and cross-examination points for a case. Four hours later, he reaches the Palakkad Civil Station, which houses the district court. Menon has been practising with the Palakkad Bar Association for 73 years and 70 days a feat which has earned him a place in the Guinness Book of World Records, as the world’s longest-practising lawyer he was born on October 15, 1926, at Pallasena in Palakkad district.
The veteran advocate bettered the record of 70 years and 311 days set by Louis W Triay of Gibraltar in December 2020. Law was not on Menon’s mind as a young man. It was his father’s decision. “During those days, parents decided what their children should do. Since one of my brothers was a doctor and the other an engineer, my father wanted me to become a lawyer. I was least interested in the profession, but I had to obey him. Looking back, I have no regrets,” he says.
Menon got his Bachelor’s degree from Government Victoria College, Palakkad in 1947. He then secured a law degree from the Madras Law College—the only institute offering a legal degree in the Madras Presidency comprising present-day Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and parts of Kerala and Karnataka. He enrolled before the Chief Justice of Madras High Court, and later worked as an apprentice with former Chief Justices—the late V Balakrishna Eradi and TC Raghavan—under the-then advocate general, Kuttikrishna Menon. After two years of training at the High Court, Menon returned to Palakkad and worked under criminal lawyer KS Ramakrishna Iyer. “Since his eyesight was poor, I would read out the mahazar and the police statements to him,” recalls Menon.
While assisting Iyer, he found his calling as a civil lawyer. The nonagenarian relates the story: “Iyer once sent me to the sub-court in Cochin in connection with a criminal case, which I won. While I was preparing to return home, the judge summoned me to his chamber and said, ‘Lawyer, you must deal with civil cases. I feel it will be a better area for you to excel in. Promise me that you will not be seen anywhere in the veranda of a criminal court.’” Menon set up his own civil law practice on July 18, 1950. “Every day since, before beginning work, I remember the wise words of the old judge,” reminisces the lawyer.
It also made him realise that he had a duty to counsel and mentor young minds. “He was instrumental in bringing out the first ever directory of advocates,” says P Prem Nath, Deputy Director of Prosecution, Palakkad, adding, “I had the privilege of working with him as the secretary of the Palakkad Bar Association when he was the president. He conducted many legal quiz programmes for junior advocates and gave the prize money from his own pocket.” A few years ago, Menon donated his entire law library to the Bar Association.
The veteran lawyer has never considered cases as “big” or “small”. To him, all are “important”. “Unlike the new generation of advocates, he never asks for adjournments,” says CG Haridas, the current president of the Palakkad Bar Association, who has seen Menon at close quarters over the past 37 years. Recently, Justice Devan Ramachandran of the Kerala High Court summed up Menon’s mantra at a function,
“Apart from knowledge of the law, empathy towards others is necessary.” Ask Menon about it, and he says, “When clients tell me, ‘you are a dependable lawyer; you give honest opinions’, my happiness knows no bounds. As long as I am healthy, I will appear on behalf of my clients,” he promises. The oldest practising lawyer on earth is always true to his word.