Memory | Justice V. Ramaswamy - The judge who stood alone

If there was a person who was more sinned against than sinning, after the Shakespearean character King Lear, it was Justice V. Ramaswamy (96), who passed away on March 8. You may wonder why I am writing about a former Justice of the Supreme Court whom I never met or had any dealings with.

Let me tell you at the outset that one of his sons was my wife’s colleague, and we met a couple of times. His father was a sitting judge of the apex court, but his conduct or disposition did not suggest that he was somebody important. He was a directly recruited officer of the Oriental Insurance Company, a public sector undertaking.

Now you know why I took an interest in Justice Ramaswamy’s career. History has recorded him as the first judge of the Supreme Court against whom impeachment proceedings were initiated in Parliament. So I should have been ashamed of writing about my connection with the judge from Tamil Nadu.

If one searches the Internet, one can find a lot of negative comments about him. One of them is that his date of birth was wrongly recorded, giving him a benefit of two extra years. In those days, most births occurred at home, and there was no practice of obtaining a birth certificate. Whatever date of birth was mentioned while enrolling a student in school became the official date of birth.

In my own case, my official year of birth is 1952, though I was actually born in 1953. I was admitted directly to Class II, skipping Class I. We had an Army Chief who tried to stay on in power even after his retirement, claiming that his year of birth was wrongly recorded. A.K. Antony, as Defence Minister, did not allow him to have his way.

But he later joined the BJP and won a Lok Sabha election, securing a margin larger than Narendra Modi’s. He also became a minister, whereas Ramaswamy was still being maligned on the Internet for “altering” his date of birth. True, the impeachment proceedings were not initiated for this reason.

Justice Ramaswamy was happily serving on the Bench of the Madras High Court when a vacancy arose in the Punjab and Haryana High Court in Chandigarh. Nobody wanted to go to Punjab, as the state had become a battleground for Khalistanis, with reports of killings—both by secessionists and security forces—emerging not only from Punjab’s interior areas but also from Chandigarh, where a Chief Minister was assassinated in a bomb blast.

Justice Ramaswamy left Chennai at short notice to take up his new post in Chandigarh, initially without even a promotion. Ordinarily, he should have been complimented for his courage and sense of duty. Far from that, when he was eventually appointed a judge of the Supreme Court, reports began surfacing about his extravagant spending while in Chandigarh. The suggestion was that he was corrupt.

There was even a case about him purchasing some ceremonial maces, which was deemed unnecessary. Since these are matters of detail, I do not wish to delve into the allegations of extravagant spending.

What struck me as bizarre were some of the charges against him. For instance, he was alleged to have removed all the water taps, carpets, curtains, bulbs, fans, tube lights, toilet seats, geysers, and furniture while vacating his official residence. I could never imagine a High Court judge removing such items to make a quick buck. By granting bail to certain individuals, he could have easily earned lakhs, if not crores of rupees. Instead, he allegedly sold household items as scrap!

Soon after the allegations appeared in print, I joined The Tribune in Chandigarh. I conducted my own investigation to find out how such charges were raised against him. Justice Ramaswamy trusted his staff so much that he left the task of vacating his residence to them. He had forgotten to obtain a certificate from officials stating that all the items issued to him had been returned. As he got immersed in his work in Delhi, some CPWD staff removed the items from the house for their scrap value.

I remembered this while vacating the bungalow The Tribune had allotted me. I ensured I received a certificate stating that all items, including the air-conditioner, computer, furniture, and fridge, were properly returned. It so happened that I was with Prof. P.J. Kurien, then Deputy Speaker of the Rajya Sabha, the day before he left for Kerala for good. I saw him obtaining a certificate from a CPWD official confirming that all government-issued items had been accounted for.

I was surprised that a committee of three judges found the allegations against Justice Ramaswamy true, leading to the initiation of impeachment—the only way a judge can be removed. A leading lawyer, Kapil Sibal, whose father was a practicing lawyer in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, was engaged to defend him in Parliament. He did a commendable job, earning a reputation that later helped him become an MP and Union Minister, handling portfolios like Human Resource Development and Science and Technology.

I had a quiet breakfast with Sibal the day after the tsunami struck the southern coast of India. “I had not even heard the name tsunami before that day,” he admitted, despite being the Science and Technology Minister. He then explained everything he had done that day. Sorry for this digression.

After Sibal’s speech, many parties decided to abstain from voting. Since a two-thirds majority was needed for impeachment, the proceedings ended there. Justice Ramaswamy was not given any judicial assignments and was allowed to retire. Some people suggested that all this happened because he belonged to a Scheduled Caste, but he never mentioned anything of the sort.

That is why I compared him to King Lear, who made the mistake of trusting his glib-talking daughters but not the one who truly loved him. His story is a reminder of how easily public figures can be vilified, sometimes unfairly, and how history often records only the controversies, not the full measure of a person’s life.

While Justice V. Ramaswamy may have been the first to face impeachment proceedings, he was also a man who took risks, upheld his duty, and faced adversity with quiet dignity. Perhaps, with time, a more balanced perspective on his legacy will emerge—one that acknowledges both his flaws and his contributions. May his soul rest in peace!

ajphilip@gmail.com