Lawyers played key role in India’s freedom: ACJ
Recalling the services of Freedom Fighters, Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan of the Hyderabad High Court on Tuesday said that many of those at the forefront of India’s freedom struggle were lawyers.
Justice Ranganathan was addressing the gathering after hoisting the National Flag to start the Independence Day celebrations in the court premises.
He said that while most of the people fondly remember Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Mahatma Gandhi, Lala Lajpat Rai, B.R. Ambedkar, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, C. Rajagopala Chari and Babu Rajendra Prasad, all eminent lawyers, there was a need to recall the quiet yet equally significant contribution of three others — Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Bhulabhai Desai, two of whom were lawyers of repute, and Rai Bahadur V.P. Menon, the Constitutional adviser to three Viceroys, who played important roles in the freedom struggle.
The Acting Chief Justice said that the latter three had not only played a key role in the country’s struggle for independence, but also guided its integration into a united and independent nation.
“Let us pay our respectful homage to those great lawyers who sacrificed their career, some of them their entire life, to secure Independence and provide us, our children and grandchildren, the freedom that they were denied by the British,” Justice Ranganathan said.