/         Difference between judicial mind and judicious mind

            Have you ever seen the difference between the two ? Have you seen how a blurred line divides the two ?                                                                                                                        .            Then this is the judicial history.

              Former  Central Minister  Kanaiyalal   Munshi has described this incident in his book   “   50 Years  of Bombay High Court   “

              A Hindu woman Bai Gulab was married to one Jivan Lal under Anuloma system of Hindu Law  but she did not want to go and live with Jivan Lal , so she engaged Munshi as her lawyer  and  had challenged this system of Anuloma .Munshi took a stand in the court of Justice  Kajiji  stating that such marriages are unlawful under the Hindu law.                 

                The arguments for the applicant and the respondent were heard                                                                     

                 Munshi observed the manner of hearing by the justice and got an inkling that the Justice would deliver judgement in favour of  Jivan Lal. 

    

                 The Justice started to dictate his judgement in the open court , and Munshi started to write down salient  points of the verbal judgement  on a loose sheet of paper . In the last, the Justice  delivered  judgement   against the client of Munshi and instructed him  to produce Bai Gulab before him in the court as he wanted to hand over custody of hers to Jivan Lal at 3 o’clock in the afternoon.. Munshi  requested Justice to postpone this provision of handing over   Bai Gulab to Jivan Lal  upto the time of completition of the appeal period , but Kajiji was adamant  and did not oblige Munshi. After stating this Justice Kajiji retired into his chamber for recess.

                  Now the recess time had already started , copy of the judgement was not given as it was yet to be typed out and there was no time for filing an appeal against the judgement  as the Justice wanted to hand over Bai Gulab to Jivan Lal immediately.

                   What to do now ?

                    Munshi went into the chamber of Chief Justice Macleod  and explained facts of the case and represented that though he had requested to defer the matter of custody up to the disposal of  appeal , the Justice was not listening anything and is all bent upon  handing over custody of Bai Gulab to Jivan Lal. If the judgement of Kajiji was to be respected, the  woman  would become pregnant by the legal process  was over and  that the complaining party was  representing  from the very beginning that this marriage was not legal .

        Now Chief Justice took the paper tendered by Munshi in his possession  called the clerk and asked him to admit this paper as appeal, give it Number and post the matter for urgent hearing at 0330  PM same day ! Then the Chief Justice  instructed  Munshi  to convey his order to the lawyer of Jivan Lal to remain present in his  Court at 03:30   PM the same day..

      The  scene was  now shifted  in the court of the Chief Justice at 0330 afternoon .

      The defence lawyer fulminated with his angry outbursts against this extra-legal procedure adopted by the Chief Justice, in absence of an appeal, then the Chief Justice showed him the  appeal-document and said he had admitted this as an appeal  , and the hearing of the appeal went on.

      This was application of judicious mind

       It is another matter the Chief Justice delivered a judgement  confirming the order of Justice Kajiji later on, on  13^th Oct 1921 after making a deep study of the writings of Yagnavalkya Rishi , Manu Smruti, commentaries of Vijaneshvar  and Caste System of India.. The judgement of the Chief Justice   Macleod is itself  full of learning  on Hindu marriages  when the males and females belong to different castes .