‘Law colleges should teach lives of legal luminaries’

Chennai: Instead of confining itself to teaching only statutes and its provisions, law colleges in the country should teach legal history and lives of eminent legal luminaries like the legendary N T Vanamamalai, said Justice S Vimala, former judge, Madras high court.She was speaking at the centenary celebrations organised in his honour by the Indian Society for Cultural Cooperation and Friendship (ISCUF) in the Indian Officers Association Building, Royapettah, here on Saturday.Vanamamalai dedicated his life to the profession and showed least interest towards money, Justice Vimala said.The doyen’s portrait was unveiled by freedom fighter and senior CPI leader R Nallakannu, 98.Justice K Chandru, former judge, Madras high court, recalled how Vanamamalai represented actor M R Radha in the MGR shoot out case’’, and said the popular feeling was completely against M R Radha at that time. “It was not easy to appear for a person who shot a prominent person of the then ruling party. But Vanamamalai believed that every accused should be given a chance to plead not guilty and therefore, appeared for Radha,” he added.In his address, Justice N Anand Venkatesh emphasized the need to take the values of personalities like Vanamamalai to the younger generation.Recalling his only interaction with Vanamamalai, retired judge of Madras high court, Justice S Nagamuthu, said, “Once I requested Vanamamalai to appear for me in a criminal case. I was very confident that we could win the case. But after reading the brief he advised me not to move the plea as it lacked merit. I pointed out some precedents in favour of my case. But he said he cannot rely on the judgments as they were not legally correct,” he added. Russian consul-general in Chennai Oleg Avdeev also delivered a speech at the event.