A jurist and scholar of the highest repute who achieved brilliant success, Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru 'had something which does not necessarily go with superior intellect and character; he had charm, bordering on charisma, that inexplicable quality whose origins are veiled among the mysteries of life'.
His career illustrates the significance of the legal profession in the political and constitutional developments of India. On his 150th birth anniversary, it is appropriate to remember and take inspiration from his life and work and salute his memory.
Sir Tej had uncommon intellectual ability and a brilliant academic career which culminated in his earning a Doctor of Laws. He made his mark quite early and came to be regarded as one of the leaders of the Bar.
Brilliant and profoundly learned in law and classics, his arguments were marked by a complete mastery over every intricate aspect of law and jurisprudence. He had an imposing presence and a magnificent voice which arrested attention.
His memory was colossal and his knowledge wide and deep. If one were to wake Sir Tej up in the night and pose before him a difficult proposition of law, one could be sure that he would be able, without looking into any books, to trace the history of the legal doctrines involved.
In recognition of his outstanding merit and reputation as a jurist, Oxford University conferred on him the degree of the Doctor of Civil Laws. In the course of his meteoric professional career of half a century, during which time he occupied a unique position, he was thrice offered judgeship which he declined.
An original thinker
One of the foremost advocates of his time, he was much more than a practising lawyer. He was essentially a jurist and an original thinker. His standards of professional conduct were of the highest order.
There were very few lawyers of greater rectitude than Sir Tej. He earned well. But money did not seem to have much value for him. He was not a money-making machine but a creative jurist dedicated to his high calling. By his fearless and powerful advocacy, he became the indomitable champion of the forces of independence and defiance of arbitrary authority even by the judges.
It is appropriate to recount Sir Tej's bold advocacy in the Searchlight contempt case. When he was arguing an intricate point, the Chief Justice of the Patna High Court said, "I have never known the law to be that, Mr. Sapru" to which in a fit of righteous indignation Sir Tej replied: "There is no such presumption in law that the judge knows the law."
In the sensational case in which Tushar Kanti Ghosh, the editor of the Amrita Bazar Patrika, was hauled up for contempt, when Sapru took the judges into subtle reasoning and case law, one of the judges remarked: "We cannot follow your reasoning" and Sir Tej boldly retorted, "It requires a judge to understand it."
Occasionally his arguments were far too subtle and learned for the judges he had to address. It was his principle not to take any fees from newspapers that were in trouble. It was the same with educational institutions and persons charged with political offences, all of which he did pro bono.
Two judges of the Allahabad High Court from the Indian Civil Service used to read all the cases at home and insisted on limiting the arguments of the counsel in court only to the points mentioned by them. The Bar was agitated. At Sapru's initiative, a resolution was passed conveying to the judges the need for a more satisfactory procedure for hearing of cases.
The then Acting Chief Justice Sir Cecil Walsh, having failed to extract an apology from the Bar, initiated contempt proceedings against the Bar including Sir Tej. Sir Benjamin Lindsay, the Senior Puisne recused himself stating that he refused to make himself ridiculous by such proceedings; the other English judges took a similar attitude. Then at the mediation of Sir Shah Sulaiman, who was nominated to be on the Bench, the matter was sorted out amicably.
In another instance, the Bench came to the conclusion that the case they were hearing was a reprehensible proceeding that amounted to an abuse of the process of the court and issued notice to the lawyer whether in the circumstances the court had the power to order a legal practitioner to pay the costs personally. At Sapru's instance, the Chief Justice Sir Grimwood Mears constituted a Full Bench of seven judges, which took a view different from that of the Division Bench.
In the course of the hearing, one of the judges said that the case had not been argued before him in the manner in which it had been placed before the Full Bench by Sir Tej nor were the authorities cited before him. Sir Tej thundered back that it could not, therefore, be said that whenever a judge thought that counsel was in the wrong, he was necessarily in the wrong.
He valiantly defended a veteran criminal lawyer Kapil Deo Malaviya when he was issued with notice of contempt of court because of an article wherein he had commented about comparatively undeserving lawyers being raised to the Bench.
Lawyer with versatile talents
Although pre-eminently a civil lawyer, his versatile talents were also exhibited in leading criminal cases. There was hardly any branch of law, including Public International Law and Private International Law, in which he could not claim to speak with knowledge and authority.
It was, however, in the field of Constitutional Law that he reigned supreme, he was a master. The recognition of his great scholarship in that domain resulted in his appointment as the Law Member of the Government of India. In the making and shaping of constitutional thought leading to our Independence, the name of Sir Tej will occur to every constitutional historian.
He occupied several offices in public life and lent dignity to them. To mention some -- he was a member of the United Provinces Legislative Council during 1913-16. He did remarkable work in the Imperial Legislative Council during the First World War (1916-20). He was knighted in 1922. He was the Law Member of the Viceroy’s Executive Council during 1920-23. The acme of his career was when he was made a Privy Councillor in 1934. Sir Tej was one of the lead counsel to defend the INA heroes.
He was a strict constitutionalist and a liberal. In the field of constitutional law and public life he avoided extremes. He was a moderate and believed that 'moderates have an important role to play in every society… they do commendable work in eliminating friction, providing smoothness to public life and finding a way out of the impasse'.
For several decades, he symbolised the golden mean in Indian politics. He was a successful mediator between warring groups and brought about the Gandhi-Irwin Pact.
In November 1944, the Sapru Committee was appointed by the Standing Committee of the Non-Party Conference to examine the whole communal question in a judicial framework. The Committee's Report contained a detailed historical analysis of the proposals and of each community and a rationale for its constitutional recommendations. The Committee also recommended enacting a constitutional guarantee for human rights- incorporating fundamental rights.
Great gentleman
He rarely indulged in humour, but whenever he did, it was with devastating effect. A journalist in London rang him up one night to say: "Our Indian office has just cabled that you have been offered a peerage."
"What of it?" asked Sir Tej. "Well Sir, could I know what title you have chosen?" persisted the journalist. "Certainly," replied Sir Tej, that inveterate smoker, "It is the Duke of Blazes" and put down the phone.
As a lawyer and as a man, Sir Tej was gifted. If one were to ask what was remarkable about him, the reply would be what was not. Besides being an erudite scholar and an astute statesman, Dr Sapru was a great gentleman.
He was a person of wide culture and catholicity of outlook. Apart from law, he was widely read in literature and humanities. His library -- well stocked with books in different subjects -- revealed a storehouse of vast erudition and he knew what was in those books.
A voracious and fast reader, he could grasp the central idea in no time. He subscribed to a large number of journals and magazines, all of which he read. His law library in particular was one of the best in India. It was given to the Supreme Court in 1950.
He was of a very charitable disposition. He espoused the cause of education and supported young students in the universities liberally. He even helped students go abroad for higher studies. He never talked about or advertised his charity; not even his family knew what he was giving or to whom.
A full and active life
Everything about Sapru was grand and magnanimous and anything that savoured of pettiness or triviality was scoffed at. A thinker and a scholar with a sensitive and scintillating mind, he moved through life wearing distinction with unassumed ease. He was invested with a moral grandeur which, coupled with professional equipment and vast erudition, made him loved and respected at home and abroad.
Sapru passed away on January 20, 1949 having lived a full and active life. A magnetic personality of great nobility and integrity, he was "learned and lovable, the acme of honour and the pink of courtesy".
To generations who have passed their lives in the law, his is truly clarum et venerabile nomen -- a celebrated and venerable name. The love and respect with which we light his memory is a measure of his eminence as a man and a lawyer and of his remarkable contribution.
(The author is a senior advocate. Views are personal.)
