New Delhi: In August 2019, the corridors of the Supreme Court saw the return of the “pitamah of the Indian Bar”. At 92, senior advocate K. Parasaran appeared in courtroom one, before a five-judge bench, to represent the infant deity ‘Ram Lalla Virajman’ in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri masjid land dispute case.
Even though he took assistance to walk in and out of the courtroom, he ardently argued the matter for five days, refusing to sit even once, despite the bench requesting him. As a mark of respect, Parasaran took off his shoes and argued barefoot for more than four hours each day.
When the opposing counsel, senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan, appearing for the Sunni Waqf Board, suggested that daily hearings in the case might be tiresome for Parasaran, the latter replied: “My only wish before I die is to finish arguing this case.”
By 2016, Parasaran had become very selective about his appearances in the top court. Lawyers associated with him said he hardly took up matters to argue, and had started spending most of his time back home in Chennai.
But he never gave up his association with two cases — the Sabarimala case where he appeared for Lord Ayyappa, and the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri masjid title suit, in which he again argued for the deity.
Advocate Aniruddh Sharma, who was a junior in Parasaran’s chamber then, told ThePrint that his “senior”, even in his retirement phase, was sure about taking up the two cases as and when they would be argued.
“He did not fight the Ram Janmabhoomi case. For him, it was a pilgrimage. He did not let his medical ailments impact or impair his involvement in the case,” Sharma added. His commitment to the case surprised and inspired many, the counsel said.
Parasaran’s legal acumen and knowledge in law and Hindu shastra and puranas made him the most favourable senior advocate to become the lead counsel for the Hindu side when the matter reached the top court in 2010.
He was their first choice soon after the Allahabad High Court delivered its verdict in the matter.
Advocate Sridhar Potaraju, who, too, was part of the core team assisting Parasaran in the matter, told ThePrint that the senior counsel never retired from the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri masjid case. “The matter was not ripe for argument, yet he (Parasaran) was preparing for it. He was determined to appear in the matter,” Potaraju said.
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Appeal across political lines
Parasaran was born on 9 October 1927, and his father, Kesava Aiyengar, was also a lawyer and vedic scholar. Parasaran moved his practice to the Supreme Court in 1958, and was appointed Tamil Nadu’s advocate general during the Emergency.
In 1980, he was appointed the solicitor general of India to represent the Indira Gandhi government in the top court. From 1983 to 1989, he served as India’s attorney general, first under Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and then her son, Rajiv Gandhi.
Despite Parasaran’s long association with the Congress, his appeal as a legal scholar transcended political lines.
Awarded the Padma Bhushan by the Vajpayee government in 2003, Parasaran was conferred the Padma Vibhushan under the UPA regime in 2011. A year later, he was nominated to the Rajya Sabha by the President for six years.
The Vajpayee government appointed Parasaran as a member of the drafting and editorial committee to review the working of the Constitution.
The senior advocate was nominated as the first trustee of the Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, soon after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced its creation to oversee the temple’s construction. His residence in Delhi is the registered office of the trust.
Parasaran’s deep vedic knowledge made him the most preferred lawyer for matters involving faith.
In his opening arguments in the Ram Janmabhoomi case, he described the reverence and significance of the site for Hindus through a Sanskrit verse.
“Janani Janmabhoomi-scha swargadapi gariyasi (mother and motherland are greater than the heavens above),” he said.
Potaraju said Parasaran’s commitment to the case for those 40 days when it was argued in the SC was akin to a “maharishi performing a yajna”.
“The only thing that was on his mind for 24 hours was legal propositions and legal strategy. Age and health could not distract him in his tapasya to liberate Sri Ram Janmabhoomi. He is a statesman jurist and devotee unparalleled in our times,” he added.
Parasaran quoted from the scriptures while arguing for Lord Ayyappa in the Sabarimala matter.
Known to be a workaholic, Parasaran has worked on matters for close to 18 hours on several days. Sharma vouched for the same.
“During the Ram Janmabhoomi case hearing, we had no working hours. There were days when we used to come back to his office early in the morning, no matter how long we had worked the day before,” he recalls.
In an interview, Parasaran jokingly said law was his second wife.
“I admitted in an open meeting that I have committed the offence of bigamy. In 1949, having married my first wife Saroja, when I enrolled myself as a lawyer, a year later, I married my second wife by name ‘law’,” he said.
“Law is always a jealous mistress. One has more affection towards the second wife. So, I spent more time with law than my own first wife.”
(Edited by Sunanda Ranjan)
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