- Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer used to spend his evenings with a walk along the banks of the Kochi backwaters. He has to his credit around 70 books, mostly on law, and four travelogues.
The legendary jurist V.R. Krishna Iyer, who took up the cause of the poor and the underprivileged in his capacities as a Minister in Kerala, a Supreme Court judge, and post-retirement, a human rights activist, is no more. He was 99.
“Without exaggeration or pessimism, I may sum up my long period in this world as the ‘home of lost causes, forsaken beliefs, unpopular names and impossible loyalties.’ What redeems my mind and mood is the satisfaction that I have dedicated my capacities not for making money but for wiping the tears of others — this being my tryst with destiny,” he said in the preface to his autobiography, Wandering in Many Worlds.
This humane bent of mind was on display earlier this year, when Justice Iyer, braving ill health, actively campaigned against the death penalty for the convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. When the Supreme Court commuted the sentence, he wrote in an article, The barbarity of the death penalty, in The Hindu: “This marks a point where India has touched its cultural Everest.”
He took human suffering seriously
Krishna Iyer, an anonymous benefactor of society’s forgotten
Krishna Iyer had all the attributes expected of a judge: erudition, quickness of mind, good memory for decided cases and patience in deciding cases. Above all, Krishna Iyer possessed one outstanding quality. He took human suffering seriously, an indispensable requirement in the dispensation of justice. That is what made him not only a great judge but also a human being par excellence.
Krishna Iyer’s life was spent not in hankering after fame and fortune with pomp and glory but in the service of humanity with transparent sincerity. As a judge, Krishna Iyer had been the anonymous benefactor of numerous forgotten members of society whom we call prisoners and jail birds. No longer will they have to rot in jails in degrading and inhuman conditions; nor suffer the torture of iron bars or chains fastened on them.
Thanks to his judgments, the horrors of solitary confinement were banished. No more could the jailer and his minions be the monarchs of all they surveyed, because prisoners now have rights and remedies to combat prison arbitrariness and assert their human dignity.
Krishna Iyer also raised his voice in combating gender discrimination whereby several women have benefited. After retirement from the Bench, Krishna Iyer intensified his zest for service to his fellow beings. He had been on platforms in different parts of India and abroad, always raising his voice fearlessly for the downtrodden and exploited segments of humanity. He tirelessly filled the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds worth of distance run. Krishna Iyer led what can truly be described as a many splendoured life. He was truly a man for all seasons.
One outstanding human quality of Krishna Iyer was compassion. Compassion, not pity. There is a marked difference. Compassion is whereby we make others’ misery our own and which moves us to the relief of those who are in distress. His guiding star, his mission in life can be summed up in the moving poem by Emily Dickinson.
If I can stop one heart from breaking I shall not live in vain/If I can ease one life the aching or cool one pain/
Or help one fainting robin unto its nest again/I shall not live in vain.
Dear Krishna Iyer did not live in vain. Now you have departed from our midst leaving us orphaned. Goodnight good judge and may host of angels carry you to your eternal rest.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted, “Fine lawyer, eminent jurist, incredible philosopher and above all a phenomenal human being. I bow to Justice Krishna Iyer.”
(The hindu, KOCHI, December 4, 2014)
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