BENGALURU: What you see may not always be what you think it is. A young man who travelled by train from Bengaluru to Mysuru learnt it the hard way. He had picked up a rod lying at the station, so was promptly arrested. Asked by a magistrate why he did so, the young man said that he had seen a signboard at the station which read ‘Treat railway property as your own’ and hence took it. The anecdote was cited by former Karnataka High Court judge Justice HN Nagamohan Das to drive a point home at a legal awareness event on Monday.
‘Advocates must create legal awareness’
Narrating the incident, Justice Das said, “One day, a young man boarded a train from Bengaluru and alighted at Mysuru railway station. He picked up a steel rod thinking that it could be used for making something. At the exit gate, the railway police arrested him. He was later produced before a magistrate. As the accused looked ‘decent’ to the magistrate, he asked him about his qualification. On learning that he was a degree holder, the magistrate asked why he had committed the act. To this, the man replied: ‘I saw a board at the railway station which read, ‘Treat railway property as your own property’, so I took it’.”
Judges and advocates at the event burst out laughing.
Justice Das further said, “We have created such students. Therefore, you (advocates) must not think that the job of creating legal awareness among people is that of the chairpersons of the High Court Legal Services Authority and Karnataka Legal Services Authority. You should stand with them and visit different places.”
Justice Das was delivering a speech as a resource person at a function organised by the Advocates’ Association of Bengaluru to commemorate Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary, at the High Court.