Noted advocate Pandey Neeraj Rai pays tribute to senior advocate of Jharkhand High Court, Pralay Kumar Sinha who passed away a couple of days back.
Ranchi, Feb 21: The undoubted Royal Bengal Tiger of the bar, and of the High Court of jurisdiction over the territories which eventually fell in Jharkhand, has finally gone to rest in peace on the 19 of February, 2023, after the cessation of active practice few years back due to health reasons.
The Maverick, who was non-compromising on the standards of law practice and morality in public life; and who minced no words in criticising those who fell short of it, will be remembered for what a doyen he was . A leader of the Bar and, if I may say so, the unofficial Leader-of-Opposition in the system, whose observant eyes and critical voice clearly controlled many a deviations.
He started practice at Patna in the year 1967 and then came and settled in Ranchi in the year 1976, in a modest house at Anantpur; where his chamber grew and witnessed about 40 years of relentless process involving the clients who came with expectation of justice to their cases, the briefing advocates from different places who came with the expectation of getting a new line of thinking to the case each one brought, the chamber juniors trying to bridge and branch in between and in the process learning the nuances of law, the Munshi ji running helter-skelter giving his 100 % as against a mere ‘10 %’ ( of the fee), and at the helm of everything, the strong and commandingpersonality of Mr. P.K. Sinha, enriched with deep understanding of law and deeper sense of mastering the facts of each brief, running the show.
In his personal life, he was a very generous and god-fearing man, an ardent devotee of the RamaKrishna Mission, whom Isaw ready to do or donate anything at the drop of a hat. He was born at Raipur (Bolpur, near Shanti Niketan), West Bengal, in the Sinha family which had owned and donated the land to Achrya Rabinra Nath Tagore on which Shanti Niketan University got established. Carrying the rich legacy of his grandfather’s brother Lord Satyendra Prasanna Sinha, who was one of the greatest lawyers India ever produced and one of the first Indian members of the British Cabinet and a Judge in the Privy Council in England, Late P. K. Sinhameventually came to Patna for law education .The family pushed him to leave Bengal after graduation. In Patna he lived with his maternal uncles- the legendary Basant Chandra Ghose and Shri S.C. Ghose, great lawyers of their time, and attended law college as well as their chamber. His senior Late Basant Chandra Ghose, who was not only a great constitutional lawyer of India fame but also a freedom fighter and strong labour leader and Member of Legislative Council, made a deep impact on his personality; and that perhaps shaped him as a maverick in the Bar, who stood up on occasions when no one would have the courage to raise a voice.
He was clearly one of the masters of civil law and constitutional law and he infused his knowledge of the same to deal with generally all types of cases in the civil writ jurisdiction. He followed the norms of conduct of a Senior Advocate, and maintained the dignity and decorum of the profession. He asserted it and he was a very hard task master, leaving no stone unturned to see the juniors work hard. At the same time he was extremely kind and fair to them, ensuring that the juniors got fair remuneration and access to legal materials available at his disposal.
“There is no royal road to education!”, he would tell me; and at times, in his typical Bangla accent: “Neeroje, yaad rokhna, Client kisi ke baap ka nahi hota!”(reminding the chamber junior, who had his father as a successful advocate to support, that one has to prove his own worth). I was fortunate to start my practice in the year 1998 as his chamber junior.
Today, almost each one of the numerous Do’s and Don’t’s of the legal profession I hear falling from the mouth of one or other person, is something that my revered senior had singularly put me to notice of, be it the importance of a smile during arguments, the marshelling of facts, the resort to classics like Salmond (jurisprudence), Maxwell (statutory interpretation) or Basu (constitution), the relevance of literature to improve language, or avoiding to appear shabby. He has left me with uncountable memories to cherish, many to mimic, and impossible to be shared fully. I was once his junior, and would always be his junior. May his blessings fall upon and qualities percolate down, leaving me ever grateful to the almighty to let his soul rest in eternal peace.
