Beyond the bench: The many dimensions of Justice M. N. Rao

An insightful journey through jurisprudential greatness

“One of the qualities of a scholar is largeness of heart and the generosity to guide the younger colleagues along.” A test that Amita Dhanda prescribes for scholars in her book “M N Rao: The Renaissance Man of Law”, a student of law and/or a practising professional has a twin advantage reading this precise but illustrative profile of a jurist through the eyes of an acknowledged academician whose knowledge and style are beyond argument.

Justice Rao retired over a quarter century ago and still commands tremendous respect from jurisprudential scholars and practising lawyers; it is only appropriate that as he trots into his 90s a book of this kind finds its way into the hands of the discerning reader. 

It is indeed a great privilege to critically evaluate this work of the author who not only has a known acquaintance and is an authority in law but also claims familiarity with the subject. 

Different measuring rods are pressed into service while reviewing books of different genres. It may sometimes be challenging to define the genre of the book; it surely is so in the instant case. “When you speak, define your terms.” the author merges streaks of a nascent biography with an in-depth analysis of the subject. The adage not to judge a book by its cover comes with a corollary: don’t judge it by its size either.

In about a hundred and fifty pages the author encompasses the work of a legal colossus. To those familiar with the profession of law, and I have a handshaking experience with it, none fully wield the indubitable repute that Justice Rao had. The irrefragable colossal contributions are summated with consummate felicity, legal acumen and literary finesse. The author’s task is at once easy and challenging: easy because Justice Rao’s verdicts, views, pronouncements and prescriptions have clarity but challenging because they are enormous and cover a range that is self-defining and difficult. The purpose of the present exercise is not to reassess Justice Rao and his contributions. I will suffer compared with the author and would also, impunity apart, be stealing a slice not offered.

The title describing the subject as the “Renaissance Man of Law” is intriguing. It is also eye-catching. An expression normally associated with arts, culture also has political and economic undercurrents juxtapositioned with jurisprudence, suggesting either resurgence or revitalisation. The works of Rao may not require any resurgence since his contributions are timeless. The work by Professor Amita is a great aid not only to students of law, who would do well to refer to the book as a ready reckoner, but is also evidently punctuated by the signature of approval of one jurist by a leading scholar in the subject. To be called a brahmarshi by Vashisth is special, and so it is in this case.

One area of personal disappointment is the continuous cross-reference to the autobiographical volume of Justice Rao entitled Glimpses from the Recycle of My Life. It is perhaps a streak of the author’s honesty that she prefers to name her source at the cost of her style; whenever she stands alone, there is characteristic lucidity in awe of Rao, like most others who know the man. She chooses to quote from his glimpses.

It would have been arguably more engaging if vintage Rao had sneaked through the Renaissance Man. Dismounting the wish horse the book in itself surely achieves opening vistas of understanding Rao before his pronouncements and his many public lectures. The concluding chapter, referring to it, summarises why the author sees Rao as the Renaissance man. A major portion of her analysis vis-à-vis the chapters on Rao, the judge and in other capacities could do with more juxtapositioned space while talking of Rao as the Renaissance Man of law.

Professor Dhanda does not fight shy of pushing her ideas, seemingly so when she talks of Rao as one who did not see the need for judicial activism but believed there was a sufficient internalised space; she is echoing Ramjet Malin’s position on needless amendments to the penal code, stating that an efficient prosecution under the existing law was good enough. She sweeps the entire controversy in a single sentence when she says that it is “quibbling on terms, not substance”.

She talks about how judicial creativity through innovative interpretative processes is better adverbial space as against the much flaunted and lamented axe of judicial activism. While it would be comparatively easy to wade through the many far-reaching pronouncements of Justice Rao, the more challenging bite that Professor Dhanda takes is to travel the space of his lectures, etc. As a “public intellectual”, as she describes him, she prefaces this chapter with an exceedingly misleading statement of her circumscribed engagement with law.

After one summarily rejects the professor because of modesty, we understand quickly not only how deeply she dwells on clarity but also how she understands Rao in the space of a public intellectual; it is perhaps for the purposes of classification of chapters that she describes Rao here as a public intellectual. Since the thread running through the chapter is that Rao is an intellectual, public, Jural, jurisprudential and emotional person.

The thread also is so intrinsically well-structured that it requires no decorative adjectives or grotesque descriptions. In contradistinction, the style throughout the book is straight to the point and strictly academic. In fact, knowing Rao, I ached for some glimpses of the man qua the many intellectual exercises, elegant and accurate, but yet only pencil sketches.

This feeling is even more acute in her chapter dealing with Rao the philanthropist and his engaging love story with Shalini, his wife. I have been a witness to the dignified respect of the couple even within the dense labyrinth of professional gatherings, even as she deals with the dynamics of caste and class prejudices in the polity; the gender envelope is gently but surely pushed ahead.

There is, of course, a glossary of judgements, lectures and the other works of Rao settled in the luxury of the reader; viciousness tends to be horses. It would be great to see Professor Dhanda revisit her intellectual exercise with the proactive monocle of a human writing about a superhuman, talking of Rao as a Renaissance man; there is more science than art in this renaissance. Hopefully her next addition will add pages in this direction.

Books by and about lawyers and judges and academia are often placed in libraries. In a world where a step to the library is along a mile, this book must find its place in more prominent spaces than the dull shelves of prosperous lawyers and bookshelves of respectable judges. The twin reasons are obvious: the subject, Justice Rao, is a storehouse of jurisprudential wisdom, and the writer, Amita Dhanda, is known for her academic repute and here for the accuracy of her analysis and expression.