Sudhi Ranjan Das
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| Sudhi Ranjan Das | |
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| Born | 1 October 1894 Telirbagh , Bangladesh, India |
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| Died | 18 September 1977 |
| As of Dec 20, 2007 Source: [2] |
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Sudhi Ranjan Das (1 October 1894-18 September 1977) (S.R. Das) was Chief Justice of India from 5 September 1955 to 31 October 1955 and then again 1 December 1955 to 31 January 1959. He retired from the Supreme Court 30 September 1959.
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[edit] Early years
S.R. Das was born into the prominent Das family of Telirbagh (now in Bangladesh). He was born to Rakhal Chandra Das and his wife Binodini Das. He attended the Visva-Bharati University at Santiniketan, where he was one of the first four pupils of Rabindranath Tagore.
He was married to Swapna Majumdar, the daughter of S.B.Majumdar, an ICS officer. He followed that by graduating from Bangabasi College of the University of Calcutta, and then an LL.B., in which he obtained a first class first (1918), from the University College, London. He was called to the Bar in 1918 from Gray's Inn, London.
[edit] Legacy
S.R. Das joined the Calcutta Bar in 1919 and also lectured at the University Law College. He is known to have had an incredible capacity for hard work. His erudition and perspicacity soon brought him to the forefront in the legal profession. Justice Das was appointed a Judge of the Calcutta High Court in 1942, and, finally, a Judge of the Federal Court of India on January 20, 1950, a few days after that, to become one of the first batch of Judges of the Supreme Court of India. He was a very illustrious Chief Justice of this Court from 1956-59. His vast knowledge and experience and sterling qualities were utilised also in the spheres of education and public life. He was a member of the University Grants Commission from 1962 to 1965, and the Vice-chancellor of Visva-Bharati University from 1959 to 1965. In November, 1961, he was appointed the Chairman of the Commission to enquire into the grievances of the Sikh Community.
In November 1963, he constituted a one-man Commission which investigated allegations of corruption and misuse of power against Chief Minister Kairon of Punjab who lost his office as a result of his findings. He was also invited to become the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Statesman Newspaper at a critical juncture in its history. He was a man of outstanding wit, charm, serenity, saintliness, and godliness. No one can recall a single unkind word uttered by him. He bore his misfortunes with unsurpassed resignation and philosophical calm. The strength of his character was tested first by the loss of his younger son in a motor accident, and, sometime later, by the death of his elder son, a test pilot, in plane crash. He is survived amongst his children only by his daughter, Mrs Kajal Asoke Sen, an Advocate of this Court. We bow our heads in homage to the light that shone amidst us for while, as everything in this world only shines for a while, and which has gone out. We offer our profound condolences to the bereaved relations. Our hearts go out to them in sympathy. We share their sense of the loss and sorrow
[edit] Personal life
Many recall Das' acts of charity, his proverbial gentleness with the members of the Bar, and mildness of his manner but firmness in the discharge of what he conceived to be his duty.
He carried a reputation for being a man of simple habits and gentle of disposition. Das shared a great deal of sympathy for the poor. A prominent member of the Brahmo Samaj movement, he endeavoured at all times to pursue earnestly the sect's ideals, including equal rights for all individuals regardless of casts, sex or creed.
Das was known to have a lively and wholesome sense of humour as is evident from his farewell speech on his retirement from this Court.
Das came from a family of lawyers: his brother, P.R. Das, was an Advocate par excellence. His cousin, Chittaranjan Das, was one of the most renowned lawyers of his age, becoming Mayor of Kolkata as well as the President of the Indian National Congress. Another cousin, Satish Ranjan Das, was the Advocate-General of Bengal and later the Law Member of the Executive Council of the Viceroy. Yet another cousin, J.R. Das, sat in the High Court at Rangoon. One of his pupils, Amal Kumar Sarkar, went on to became a Chief Justice on the Supreme Court of India for a short period. Das was also a cousin of two prominent Bengali educationists and feminists - the sisters Sarala Roy, founder of the 'Gokhale Memorial School' in Calcutta and a prominent women in Bengal's social affair, and Lady Abala Bose, wife of legendary scientist Jagadish Chandra Bose and also a prominent women of her time.
Sudhi Ranjan Das was married to the former Swapna Majumdar, the daughter of S.B.Majumdar, an ICS officer. By his wife, he had two sons Group Captain Suranjan Das and Suhrid Ranjan Das, and one daughter. The daughter Anjana married the barrister and future Law Minister Ashoke Sen. His children were all named by Rabindranath Tagore; however, at least one son, the younger, bore a name already used in the Das family.
Both sons died young. The elder, Group Captain Suranjan Das, a test pilot, died in a plane crash, leaving a daughter, Ranjana and son, Sudipto, by his first marriage. The younger son, Suhrid Ranjan Das (alias "Manik"), died in December 1966 a motor accident near Angul, Orissa, in which his elder daughter also died; his wife and younger daughter survived the accident. Sudhi Ranjan Das was survived by his daughter Anjana (nicknamed "Kajal") and her husband Ashoke Kumar Sen, and by seven grandchildren. [1]
Family Tree :
Gopi Mohan Das
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Rakhal Chandra Das Rai Bahadhur S.B.Majumdar
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Sudhi Ranjan Das--------Swapna Majumdar
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| | | Suranjan Das Anjana Suhrid Ranjan
(d. 1970) fl. 1993 (d. Dec 1966) m1. (div) md. md. _____ ________ Ashoke Kumar Sen | | | | 1 son, 1 dau(decd) | 1 dau (1 dau decd) | ---------------------------------------- | | | | Krishna Shyamali Anindya Aditya
[edit] References
- ^ Eulogy by Chief Justice M.H. Beg and Attorney General, Mr. S.V. Gupte in 1977.[1]. Retrieved 27 December 2007. The grandchildren were the two children of his elder son Suranjan, the surviving daughter of his younger son Suhrid ("Manik"), and the four children of his daughter Anjana.
