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When a proper history of the Madras Bar gets chronicled and the galaxy of its past leaders portrayed, no other figure will more engage our attention than that of Dr. Alladi Krishnaswami Aiyar with his brilliant forensic powers of debating and his pioneering studies in Constitutional Law. Though endowed poorly by nature in his physique and looks, still by his beaming and glittering eyes and broad smile, he never escaped notice in any distinguished assembly. For nearly three decades and more, he moved from one to the other of the High Court halls, and attracted not only a large and varied clientele but an entire world of jurists. His name was on every lip and his unassuming demeanour towards all gained him an enviable popularity. He remained the same likeable gentleman to everybody, despite his day-to-day self-surpass­ing position in the public eye. Being conscious of his early trials in penury and his struggle to rise in his profession, he never once afterwards displaced a wholesome sympathy to others in the same predicament in life, by any of the intolerances or indifferences accompanying one in the wake of unusual prosperity.

Born on the 14th of May 1883, in Nayudupet (Nellore District) of poor parents, he was inculcated from the start in learning. From school to college took him to Madras, where in the Christian College, becoming a favourite of Professors like Mr. Kellet, he soon won spurs in history studies. Tutor he remained for some time in the college, but soon entered the portals of the Law College, ultimately to enter the legal profession. Indeed, one should have required courage and individuality to choose the law for profession with practically no useful social contacts or sympathetic well-wishers.

He took to law as fish to water, and naturally success came to him in no time. Apprenticed to Mr. P. R. Sundaram Aiyar, who was himself known to be prodigious in legal studies, Dr. Alladi with little effort on his part received the apprecia­tion and encouragement from some of the leaders. It was no exaggeration if he was sought also by some of the top seniors to assist them in unravelling knotty problems of law. Hard work during the initial days by his devotion to reading of Reports of both English and Indian decided cases, stood him in good stead; and, added to his natural inclination to be seriously discussing legal problems, it was no wonder he in a short time became known for his incisive intellect and acute skill in debating. In 1907, he was enrolled as a Vakil and in less than two or three years he was able to stand on his own legs without undergoing much travail of juniordom. To show how he easily impressed both seniors in the profession and the judges of the High Court, one telling instance may suffice. Once, on behalf of his own master Mr. Sundaram Aiyar, he was making a statement of English Law before a Bench presided over by no less a judge than Sir John Wallis, when, in appreciation of the aptness of it, the judge queried: “Wherefrom you have got this; is it from any judicial pronouncement or your own?� At once Mr. V. Krishnaswami Aiyar, appearing on the other side, was heard to say, “That young man can himself formulate such a legal proposition.� It was a well-deserved tribute from one higher in the profession, and Mr. Alladi long remembered it with pride and gratitude.

From a young junior to be transformed a senior in his turn with an office crowded with juniors and apprentices, it took not many years for him to be engaged in any complicated issue of a case, whether it be of Hindu Law or Land Revenue or Zamindari Estate. It was said that when Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee of Calcutta paid a visit in 1915, to the Vakils� Association and Sir K. Srinivasa Aiyengar, then a judge, introduced Mr. Alladi as a rising member of the Bar, Justice Sir Abdur Rahim (later to be President of the Legislative Council at the Centre, in Delhi) who was near, corrected him saying “He has already risen.�

It was quite in due course if Mr. Alladi was appointed the Advocate-General of Madras in 1928; for by then he had established his claim as a birthright to be chosen the Official Head of the Bar. As Advocate-General he was diligent to be acquainting himself with the requirements of the new office. With a sense of responsi­bility, he would even peruse some of the drafted opinions of his predecessors such as Sir P. S. Sivaswami Aiyar and Mr. S. Srinivasa Aiyengar, in order to be familiar with models of draftmanship in rendering legal opinions to the Government. He used to be struck by the lucidity of Mr. Sivaswami Aiyar’s language and the compact terseness of Srinivasa Aiyengar’s. Himself desirous of wielding a good style, he would write and re-write his statements more to be precise of language and substance. As a matter of fact some of his Farewell Addresses to retiring judges of the High Court were so well-prepared with poise and dignity of phrasing that they were collected in a special volume at the time of his Shashtyabdapoorti and presented to him.

Dr. Alladi Krishnaswami Aiyar was not known for exhaustive arguments in court. Brief he always tried to be, and careful in selecting a few points which alone, according to his judgement, if forcefully pressed would win the case. No set plan would be employed by him, for his resilient mind often studied the judges and changed his strategem to suit the occasion. If economy in art makes literature significant, no less was economy in presenta­tion of arguments to him a matter of art. His sound memory and resourcefulness aided him as nothing else.

It was a case for issue of a writ of Scire Facias which came before a Bench presided over by Sir Murray Coutts Trotter. Mr. Alladi began to change his original intention, and canvassed a favourable passage from a book called Tidd’s Practice of England. Justice Trotter could not restrain his surprise and asked, “Mr. Alladi, how did you get that book?� The reply even more astounded the judge when Mr. Alladi replied: “We were familiar with that book in Sundaram Aiyar’s law chambers when we worked under him.� Later he traced the entire course of that writ with various authorities and impressed Justice Trotter of the immense study involved. But soon Mr. Alladi with a wink, characteristic of him, said to a friend near, “Of course, the whole range of authorities is well-collected in a Calcutta judgement of Justice Ashutosh Mukherjee; I purposely made it all look a renewed research for this case.�

One other matter needs mentioning about his quick grasp of details. In the Cauvery Arbitration matter before Justice Page, the judge was taken up with him at the way he piled up points of intimate Engineering knowledge. No doubt, the Chief Engineer of the Government of Madras was by his side to brief him on technical points arising. Still, the readiness of his brain to grasp any unfamiliar subject in a moment, deserved the compliment offered by the judge.        Even before the Indian Government conceived of the setting up of a Federal Court at Delhi, he had anticipated it by regular studies of the various Federal Constitu­tions of United States, Canada and Australia and equipped himself for any contingency that may arise for his services. He began to love the subject and was constantly purchasing books dealing with Constitutions of States not only of Europe and America but of the Soviet Republic. It was a pleasure for him to plunge into that familiar field of his later day studies with enormous zest.

Dr. Alladi appeared often forgetful of some of the normal claims for attention of an individual quite prominent in the public eye. But at the same time there was an awareness in him for not missing to notice any able younger member of the Bar or any fresh client with a case involving interesting points of law. He sniffed like a war horse for success in the causes he espoused and more so when confronted by opponents with equally established reputations as advocates. The apparent satisfaction he revealed in gaining acclamation for winning a difficult litigation made him never feel superior in outlook or uncommon of a human being. He loved the company of his own familiar group while many others in a similar position would have shifted to newer eminences.

He was elected to the Senate of the Madras University while quite a rising practitioner of law, and he also served on the Syndicate for some time. On many committees he had made a mark for his agile perception of problems to be solved quickly.

Beyond all his legalistic essayings, there was a core within him which beckoned him to a “Philosophy of Law� which the normal lawyer of even much standing never addressed his mind to. If in the Constituent Assembly he was listened to with rapt attention by no less than Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Dr. Rajendra Prasad and Dr. Ambedkar, it was due to his unfailing alertness to observe a changing world where law became more and more an instrument of social change. Steeped in law and legalism of every kind, he knew also the limits of law beyond which lay the life of a people. In an earlier address of his at the Krishnarajendra Silver Jubilee, 1939, he remarked: “The one important lesson that is learnt by a lawyer in the course of his studies is that the source of all law is to be found in the seething life of the people, that the course of legal development is determined by the progress attained by the nation in the several spheres, and that the legal system in its turn has shaped progress.� Dr. Alladi was convinced of the vast population’s responsibility for Constitutions proving useful. For answering the real needs of a growing nation, he thought of “Adult Franchise� as inevitable for its progress. He was found saying, that any day the unlettered man in the street was more educated than the compulsorily educated ones who pose to exercise properly the gift of franchise.

When all is said of Dr. Alladi’s achievements which certainly buoyed up his spirits, he was never proud or exclusive. His childlike simplicity in acknowledging others� excellences, his loyalty to friends who, like Mr. Subbaraya Aiyar, had shared with him his joys and woes from the earliest times of their lives, his desire for his own progeny not lagging behind many an ambitious young spirit for achievement in life, his remaining to the last his own self-all these and more draw us to cherishing his memory with admiration and sincerity.     
(By courtesy - The Hindu)