Lawyers, at least in India, especially those at the top of the profession, do not normally retire, unless it is for such valid reasons as ill-health. In most cases practice retires from lawyers, leaving them high and dry! An outstanding example of a Madras lawyer who gave up his extremely lucrative practice one eventful evening and walked out for ever from the Madras High Court was S. Duraiswami Iyer. A man known for his brilliance, legal acumen, forensic talents and skills and, above all, human values, was Duraiswami Iyer. More than eighty years ago, his income was over half a lakh of rupees a month!

After completing his legal studies, Duraiswami Iyer joined the chambers of Sreeman S. Srinivasa Iyengar, described as the greatest Roman of them all. As a young man Duraiswami Iyer also jumped into the Indian freedom movement like his guru, but unlike him he was an extremist. In those years, the Congress Party was divided into ‘Extremists’ and ‘Moderates’. The ‘Extremists’ consisted of Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Bipin Chandra Pal and Lala Lajpat Rai. Duraiswami Iyer was an ardent follower of this brilliant trio popularly known as ‘Bal-Pal-Lal’.

Among the Moderates were V. Krishnaswami Iyer, Gopalkrishna Gokhale, Madanmohan Malaviya and Sir Phirozeshah Mehta. The Extremists felt that the British should be kicked out using extreme methods and by following the letter of law nothing could be achieved. The Moderates believed otherwise and felt that to attain freedom you should move step by step within the Law. They believed in the British political philosophy known as Fabianism, the principle of which was ‘the Inevitability of Gradualness’. Duraiswami Iyer and others felt it was just hot air!

The 1907 Surat session of the Indian National Congress was a historic event. It was presided over by Rash Behari Ghosh, an eminent son of Bengal. The Extremists prevented him from delivering his presidential address with constant interruptions, booing and catcalls. Duraiswami Iyer lent his voice to this protest. Phirozeshah Mehta found it impossible to continue the meeting and adjourned it to the next morning, when the situation became worse. Before he could commence his interrupted address, Bal Gangadhar Tilak leapt on to the stage and began to speak at the top of his voice and demanded a resolution supporting the extremists’ view. V. Krishnaswami Iyer objected, saying that Tilak had no ‘locus standi’ to speak before the President and he and his supporters rushed towards the dais. Shouts filled the air and, then out of the blue, there began a rain of slippers on the leaders seated on the dais who ran helter skelter.

One Extremist lifted his chair over his head and rushed toward the dais accompanied by equally armed colleagues. When he was about to knock down a Moderate, he suddenly exclaimed in Tamil “Neengala saar?” (Is that you?) and turned away. The leader who escaped the chair bashing was the silver tongued orator V. S. Srinivasa Sastri and the chair wielder was an old student of his in Triplicane!

Many thought that this was the end of the Congress Party but Krishnaswami Iyer merged them together a year later during the Congress session in Madras.

As for Duraiswami Iyer, thanks to his aggressive role in that turbulent session, he came to be known as ‘Surat’ Duraiswami Iyer. Even today old-timers refer to him by that name.

Understandably, disappointed with the Indian political scene, Duraiswami Iyer bade goodbye to politics and went back to his practice, soon scaling the peaks of success.

During those decades, on the Original Side, there was a spate of litigation popularly known as ‘Periamet Suits’. Periamet, near the municipal corporation, was and still is the centre of the hides and skins business. During that period, due to the impact of the Great War (1914-18), there were many suits for breach of contract in the supply of hides and skins. In such Original suits the entire work was shared by V.V. Srinivasa Ayyangar and S. Duraiswami Iyer. A European judge once wisecracked that it was ironical that two orthodox Brahmins who had never seen the hide or skin of a dead animal should be earning a fortune in cases built around such material!

Duraiswami Iyer enjoyed an enviable reputation for his opening of a case. In a trial, the lawyer appearing for the plaintiff will open the case stating the facts, indicating the evidence, stressing the legal provisions, presenting them almost like telling a story. Duraiswami Iyer had few equals in this. Very often, his opening was so effective that, invariably, it laid a strong foundation for his winning the case.

He always fought for truth and justice come what may. An example of this was a case in which he appeared for a poor Brahmin priest in the Chettinad area. The priest regularly performed poojas in a dilapidated temple and was anxious to rebuild it. He approached many rich Nattukottai Nagarathar for their help, travelling to Rangoon, Mandalay, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and other places where the Nagarathar did business. Some of the devotees of the temple paid for his travel expenses and he was able to collect a sizeable sum. He had only a cloth bag and little else and, afraid of keeping the collections in such a bag, he approached a well-known firm of Nagarathar bankers for help. They asked him to pay the amount into their account and collect it whenever he needed it on returning to India. Accordingly he deposited all the collected funds with the Rangoon office of the bankers.

Shock hit him when he returned and asked for the money in Chettinad. The bankers told him that he had only gone as their agent; they would not hand over the cash to him and would give it to him whenever the construction work started. The crushed priest met local lawyers, but nobody would give him a helping hand. An exception was the well-known Madras city attorney K.S. Rajagopala Iyengar who promised to help him and paid for his expenses to go to Madras. Rajagopala Iyengar sent him to Duraiswami Iyer who exploded when he heard what had happened. He told his junior to send a notice of demand and refusal without elaborating on the evidence. He also told him, “If this case does not succeed, it means there is no justice in this world.”

The bankers expectedly denied the claims and a suit was filed on the Original Side of the Madras High Court by Duraiswami Iyer and the case soon came up for hearing before the Honourable Mr. Justice R. S. Gentle (later, a Chief Justice). Many top lawyers of the Madras Bar appeared for the Chettinad bankers.

In his characteristic style, Duraiswami Iyer made an opening of the case that impressed Justice Gentle greatly. Then, the priest produced the receipts signed by the banking firm for the amounts received. Whereupon, Duraiswami Iyer tore the defendants to shreds. An anything-but-gentle Gentle decreed in favour of the priest for the entire amount with interest till the date. When the grateful priest called on Duraiswami Iyer and offered him a fee, the lawyer shouted him out of his office.

A family tragedy involving his son not long afterwards proved too much to bear for Duraiswami Iyer and by the mid-1930s he retired from practice.

When Rajaji became the Premier of the Madras Presidency in 1937, he offered Duraiswami Iyer the high office of Advocate-General. Duraiswami Iyer replied, “I am a retired lawyer who gave up practice many years ago. It is not correct to ask such a man to be the Advocate-General.”

While an Extremist, Duraiswami Iyer had been drawn to the philosophy of Aurobindo Ghosh who had himself been an ‘extremist’ in his younger days. Following his footsteps, Duraiswami Iyer moved to Pondicherry and joined the Aurobindo Ashram where he lived for many years. After Aurobindo’s death, Duraiswami Iyer returned to Madras and lived his last years in the ashram at Thirumullaivoyal, established by S. Parthasarathy (son of S. Srinivasa Iyengar and founder of the Prithvi Insurance Company and also a brilliant legal mind).

While in practice, he had lived in a palatial mansion in Mylapore which he donated to the Kesari High School where it functions today.

Men of his calibre, values and outlook on life have vanished today.