Mohammad Hidayatullah Quotes (36 quotes)

Mohammad Hidayatullah: 36 quotes0 likes

Famous Mohammad Hidayatullah Quotes

“The State is at the centre and the society surrounds it. Disturbances of society go in a broad spectrum from more disturbance of the serenity of life to jeopardy of the State. The acts become graver (and graver) as we journey from the peripheral of the largest circle towards the centre. In this journey we travel first through public tranquility, then through public order and lastly to the security of the State.”

Mohammad Hidayatullah

In one of his judgements.
Full Court Reference in Memory of The Late Justice M. Hidayatullah

“Please do not worry, I never read anything which you write.”

Mohammad Hidayatullah

When a colleague in the court had sent him disparaging remarks on the sides and as a foot note on his draft of a judgement with the comment “Please do not read the marginal comments. They are not for your eyes."
Full Court Reference in Memory of The Late Justice M. Hidayatullah

“This was an attempt of not creating 'forward looking judges' but the 'judges looking forward' to the plumes of the office of Chief Justice.”

Mohammad Hidayatullah

When three eminent judges of the Supreme Court, Hegde, Shelat and Grover JJ were superseded and Justice A. N. Ray was appointed as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court on 25th April, 1973 <br class="br">Source: Long March of the Supreme Court Bar Association http://www.lexsite.com/services/network/scba/history.shtml, LexSite.com

“I was so excited to hear the Trinity College the first night of my stay in the College:
Trinity’s loquacious clock
Who never let the quarters, night and day,
Slip by him improclaimed, and told the hours
Twice over with a male and female voice…”

Mohammad Hidayatullah

He quoted this William Wordsworth’s poem while resident at Cambridge
Source: Law in the Scientific Era, p. 50

“There is no higher principle for the guidance of the Court than the one that no act of Courts should harm a litigant and it is the bounden duty of Courts to see that if a person is harmed by a mistake of the Court he should be restored to the position he would have occupied but for that mistake.”

Mohammad Hidayatullah

Full Court Reference in Memory of The Late Justice M. Hidayatullah

“Where obscenity and art are mixed art must be so preponderating as to throw the obscenity into shadow.”

Mohammad Hidayatullah

His view as a connoisseur of art, inconsistent with public morals and decency.
Full Court Reference in Memory of The Late Justice M. Hidayatullah

Mohammad Hidayatullah Quotes about laws

“It is true that Judges, as the upholders of the Constitution and the laws, are least likely to err but the possibility of their acting contrary to the Constitution cannot be completely excluded.”

Mohammad Hidayatullah

Full Court Reference in Memory of The Late Justice M. Hidayatullah

“Law and order represents the largest circle within which is the next circle representing public order and the smallest circle represents security of State. It is then easy to see that an Act may affect law and order but not public order, just as an act may affect public order but not security of the State.”

Mohammad Hidayatullah

He explained the intricate relationship of the concepts of law and order, public order and the security of the State, in a particular case.
Full Court Reference in Memory of The Late Justice M. Hidayatullah

“In one of his judgments he took the view that the works contracts should be really treated as divisible for the purposes of sales tax has now found acceptance by way of amendment of the relevant constitutional entries and the relevant laws.”

Mohammad Hidayatullah

M.H. Kania
Full Court Reference in Memory of The Late Justice M. Hidayatullah

“The pages of the Law Reports reflect as much his legal learning and contribution to the development of the law, as his erudition; his judgments were all written with elegance and were often infused with the appropriate literary allusion.”

Mohammad Hidayatullah

By I.M Chagla
Speech By Mr. S. G. Page, Government Pleader, High Court, Bombay, Made OnMonday, 28 September, 1992

“He was a man of many parts – Law, Literature, Public Affairs, International Affairs and Education. In the field of Law he held all offices which any lawyer can aspire to hold – Government Pleader; Advocate General of C. P. & Berar; Judge of the Nagpur High Court; Chief Justice of the Nagpur, High Court; Judge of the Supreme Court and culminating as the Chief Justice of India. He served as a Judge for 25 years.”

Mohammad Hidayatullah

By J.R. Jagrat
Speech By Mr. S. G. Page, Government Pleader, High Court, Bombay, Made OnMonday, 28 September, 1992

“He had been an extremely thorough and patient Judge with unremitting industry and keen sense to discover truth and do justice. Law, liberty and justice were upheld with consummate ability and independence by His Lordship. On public controversies, some of his judgments are thought provoking. He disputed the correctness of any attempt to whittle down fundamental rights while making it clear that the right to property was not forever sacrosanct. The distinction between the law and order and the public order, has been brought out succinctly in his reported judgments.”

Mohammad Hidayatullah

By S.G.Page
Speech By Mr. S. G. Page, Government Pleader, High Court, Bombay, Made OnMonday, 28 September, 1992

Mohammad Hidayatullah Quotes about personality

“…with the escort of the Military Secretaries, aids-de-camp and the President’s Body Guard, all in their splendid uniforms We made a glittering sight. Even in my best dress I looked drab beside my wife in a simple and well-chosen ensemble. I felt a little pride but was reminded of the entry of Caliph Omar into Damascus. He was offered ths surrender of the city if he came to the city in person. Omar rode his one-eyed camel with a servant on foot, and they traveled equal distance on foot in turn and rode in turn. Near Damascus, Omer was met by his generals Abu Obaida and Khalid bin Walid. Seeing his tattered and travel-worn dress they insisted that he should change into proper clothes and ride a caparisoned charger. Omar gave in and followed their advice. Very soon afterwards he stopped and asked for his former clothes and his camel saying “Pride is entering my soul, and the Prophet said that if a man has pride, the size of a mustard seed, he will not enter Paradise. I felt ashamed of myself and put aside the feeling at once and began thinking of other things.”

Mohammad Hidayatullah

On the occasion of 15th August 1969, India’s Independence Day.
Source: Law in the Scientific Era, P.245-46.

“I crave to be understood because when a person writes about himself, he does not work in obscurity but a little too much in the light which he focuses on himself. To me the satisfaction comes from the fact that at least I have said something about myself in my own voice without ‘paraphrasing any hard truths’.”

Mohammad Hidayatullah

Source: Law in the Scientific Era, P.vii.

“He was one of the few judges who could occasionally poke fun at himself. He told me that once he was sitting at a dinner at the Cambridge University where a number of distinguished persons had been invited. Next to him was an elderly gentleman whose identity he did not know. There was some discussion about the theory of relativity and he aired his own views with a certain measure of authority. His neighbour told him that his views were interesting and invited him for a cup of tea in the next two or three days. Later on he found out that he had been talking to the world renowned physicist Sir Arthur Eddington who was reputed as one of the few persons apart from Einstein who understood the theory of relativity. He never picked up the courage to go for that cup of tea and face Sir Arthur Eddington.”

Mohammad Hidayatullah

M.H. Kania
Full Court Reference in Memory of The Late Justice M. Hidayatullah

“He was a warm and friendly person who could mix with one and all on even terms.”

Mohammad Hidayatullah

Full Court Reference in Memory of The Late Justice Mohammad Hidayatullah

Mohammad Hidayatullah Quotes

“If a Judge, without any reason, orders the members of say one political party out of his Court, those so ordered may seek to enforce their fundamental rights against him and it should make no difference that the order is made while he sits as a Judge. Even if appeal lies against such an order, the defect on which relief can be claimed, is the breach of fundamental rights.”

Mohammad Hidayatullah

Full Court Reference in Memory of The Late Justice M. Hidayatullah

“The cherished right on which our democracy rests is meant for the expression of free opinions to change political or social conditions or for the advancement of human knowledge.”

Mohammad Hidayatullah

Full Court Reference in Memory of The Late Justice M. Hidayatullah

“The artistic appeal or presentation of an episode robs it of its vulgarity and harm…”

Mohammad Hidayatullah

His view as a connoisseur of art
Full Court Reference in Memory of The Late Justice M. Hidayatullah

“I chose the title of the book from Oliver Wendel Holme’s subtitle to his Aristocrat of the Breakfast Table; Every man His own Boswell. I was a miscellanist before I attempted a full length book. I learnt the art of narration from Boswell. After all even Macaulay, in spite of many hard things he said of Boswell, did acknowledge that he was the first of biographers and the world has since considered him the greatest.”

Mohammad Hidayatullah

Source: Law in the Scientific Era, P.vii.

“I was never in the mood of Lord Macaulay who said – I shall retire early I am very tired– I know that life meant that one must continue to occupy his time with work.”

Mohammad Hidayatullah

Speech By Mr. S. G. Page, Government Pleader, High Court, Bombay, Made On Monday, 28 September, 1992

“…we need not shed tears over what has happened and we can look forward – not be forward looking, but look forward – to an era which will be as good as the one which has gone before.”

Mohammad Hidayatullah

Speech By Mr. S. G. Page, Government Pleader, High Court, Bombay, Made On Monday, 28 September, 1992

“In the most inalienable of such rights a distinction must be made between possession of a right and its exercise. The first is fixed and the latter controlled by justice and necessity.”

Mohammad Hidayatullah

His further views on Fundamental Rights
Full Court Reference in Memory of The Late Justice M. Hidayatullah

“While in London I became interested in speaking in public. I lectured at Hyde Park Corner when the Simon Commission was being boycotted in India as no Indian was a member. I stood the heckling well and even indulged in a little ridicule. People completely ignorant of India and Indian conditions would heckle me. One fellow claimed that he had lived in India and Kabul which he asserted was the capital of India.”

Mohammad Hidayatullah

Source: Law in the Scientific Era, P.47-48.

“In the car, President Nixon seemed relaxed and quite flattered by the response of the people. Characteristically he asked me: “Mr President, do people always turn out like this to greet the Indian President or is this because of the President of the United States?” I sensed the comparison. I quietly replied ”Mr President, I would suspect that many youngsters are here to see what a bullet-proof car looks like!””

Mohammad Hidayatullah

He smiled and replied “You have a point there!”.
During the official visit of President Richard Nixon to India, quoted In: P.250.
Law in the Scientific Era

“The family connection with the Hindu Holy of Holies (Benares) was apparent in the many Hindu traditions and customs observed in our house-hold. Beef was as taboo as pork was and Divali used to be observed with Divas, as indeed several other Hindu festivals. The orthodox Muslims looked askance at us and we merited Iqbal’s couplet: "The orthodox preacher considers me as an Unbeliever and Unbleiver thinks I am a Muslim."”

Mohammad Hidayatullah

Source: Law in the Scientific Era, P.2.

“The Judge should certainly consider what is happening around him, but his interpretation should strictly be judicial.”

Mohammad Hidayatullah

His interpretation on the view once expressed by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru that a Judge should also keep in mind the social values while delivering his Judgment.
Speech By Mr. S. G. Page, Government Pleader, High Court, Bombay, Made On Monday, 28 September, 1992

“I spoke in debates arranged by the Indian students in London and once V. K. Krishna Menon opposed me. The debate concerned the role of Asia in world affairs and I used the word Asiatic. Menon raised a laugh against me by saying that he did not like the word because it rhymed with ‘lunatic’ although I should consider myself free to use it. He advised me to use the word ‘Asian’ instead. When my turn came for reply, I thanked him for his advice but preferred to stick to the Asiatics adding that he had no objection of Menon calling an Asian although the word rhymed with ‘Simian’. This brought the house down and even Menon joined in the laughter and clapping.”

Mohammad Hidayatullah

Source: Law in the Scientific Era, P.48.

“Liberty of the Individual has to be Fundamental and it has been so declared by the people… To change the Fundamental part of Individual's liberty is a usurpation of constituent functions because they have been placed outside the scope of the power of the constituted Parliament.”

Mohammad Hidayatullah

His judgement in another case on the issue of Fundamental Rights.
Full Court Reference in Memory of The Late Justice M. Hidayatullah

“He was a Gandhian in ideology, essentially cosmopolitan in outlook, truly Indian in culture, a poet at heart and an activist in thoughts.”

Mohammad Hidayatullah

By R.K. Jain
Full Court Reference in Memory of The Late Justice M. Hidayatullah

“As Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, he had the awesome task of dealing with some unruly scenes. He did so with aplomb and finesse, often with a witticism that helped defuse the situation.”

Mohammad Hidayatullah

By I.M Chagla
Speech By Mr. S. G. Page, Government Pleader, High Court, Bombay, Made OnMonday, 28 September, 1992

“As Acting President and Vice President, he walked with Kings, Presidents and Prime Ministers, but never lost the common touch. He was always approachable and was kindliness to all. He brought to his chamber work, in his Opinions and in arbitrations, an understanding and humanity, and gave satisfaction to all.”

Mohammad Hidayatullah

By I.M Chagla
Speech By Mr. S. G. Page, Government Pleader, High Court, Bombay, Made OnMonday, 28 September, 1992

“He was a very warm, sincere and sensitive family man and friend.”

Mohammad Hidayatullah

By I.M Chagla
Speech By Mr. S. G. Page, Government Pleader, High Court, Bombay, Made OnMonday, 28 September, 1992

“During his long tenure in the Supreme Court, he was a party to and author of a number of landmark judgments.”

Mohammad Hidayatullah

Full Court Reference in Memory of The Late Justice Mohammad Hidayatullah

“His was the variegated and distinguished career of the eminent jurist, scholar, educationist, author and linguist. During his life span of four score and seven years symbolised significant achievement at each important stage, bringing honour and glory not only to himself but also to the institutions which he served and to our country.”

Mohammad Hidayatullah

Full Court Reference in Memory of The Late Justice Mohammad Hidayatullah

“But many other Indians are cast in that mould, Indians in their basic culture though their high culture is western.”

Mohammad Hidayatullah

Naipaul is sui generis. <br class="br">Lee Kuan Yew's comment when he received him as Vice President of India, the first Muslim Chief Justice of India in Singapore in 1981 <br class="br">Source: Sunanda K. Datta-Ray Looking East to Look West: Lee Kuan Yew's Mission India http://books.google.co.in/books?id=DFo1yl5AGokC&pg=PA230&lpg=PA230, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2009, p. 230.