The Calcutta Seniors Part I: Senior Advocate and Government Pleader, Ashok Banerjee

I finally find Ashok Banerjee, Senior Advocate and government pleader, sitting in his office in the Calcutta High Court. The office furniture is being refurbished and he is looking at his surroundings with an almost derisive air. When I compliment his relatively fancy surroundings, he looks at the furniture with a tinge of contempt and mutters under his breath, “Unnecessary expense”..When he sees the voice recorder I have brought, he gives another dismissive shake of his head and says, “In the earlier days, this (pointing at the recorder) kind of publicity was condemned!” And I remember thinking, “This is going to be very interesting”.Over the next hour or so, the senior counsel talks about his early years, of hailing from a family of lawyers and of travelling around the world. Like most experienced counsels, Ashok Banerjee has almost mastered the art of telling a story, his voice rising with every twist and turn, using emotion as a support when the facts might not be enough. Every once in a while, he will break into this raspy chuckle over some incident in his early years..There is little doubt that Ashok Banerjee has built an immensely successful private practice. The third in a line of highly successful lawyers, Banerjee also comes from an extremely wealthy background. Coming from a wealthy family, young Banerjee evidently lived a life of great comfort. Even then, there was something that kept pulling him back to India, back to his native place Balli, the place where he saw his, “first light” and the place where he wants to see his last..“I have travelled to over forty countries in the world,” he says with raised eyebrows, “I used to go to London every year but something kept pulling me back to my hometown.”.Ashok Banerjee has a very dry sense of humour and he narrates his story in a manner that can be most self-deprecating..“I remember that once my grandmother told me ‘Just once show what you are capable of’ and so just once I stood second. Just that once mind you”, he laughs. .His entry into the legal profession also seemed to be more of a result of unforeseen circumstances rather than anything else. “Even though I was a mediocrat,” he says, “I got a very good job in a company and that would mean I would be posted abroad.” As a young man eager to see the world, this was an opportunity that he was more than eager to take up..But it was a conversation with one of his father’s juniors that pushed him into the legal profession. When asked why he was not joining his father, Banerjee frankly replied that the profession was too “dry” and uninteresting. The junior, who would later become a judge of the High Court, was aghast at this response, and told Ashok Banerjee that this couldn’t be further from the truth..“He told me that [as a lawyer] you are your own master,” Ashok Banerjee says recounting that conversation, “and if you are hard working than money will run after you!”.More than four decades later, he recounts that first conversation with his father’s junior with a certain amount of of nostalgia..“Of course when the money is running after you”, he laughs, “You may not enjoy it because you will be an old man.”.Nonetheless, Ashok Banerjee joined the profession, working in a number of chambers before eventually going on to build his own practice. When talking about his early years, he does not shy away from accepting the fact that his father provided him financial support..“Of course it was embarrassing to ask money from one’s parents, but I had to take a little bit.”.In fact, the support was not limited to the financial kind. The first time Ashok Banerjee argued in the High Court, it was because a friend of his father allowed him to move a particular application. This memory too is recounted with a wry smile on his face..“Oh I was such a serious lawyer. I spent hours on drafting the application but when I moved it before the Court, the judges merely said ‘Usual orders’. There was nothing I had to do!”.When it comes to the current crop of young lawyers, Ashok Banerjee does not hold back his reservations on, as he describes it, the “impatient generation”..“Nowadays lawyers are not coming from the lower middle class, poor families etc. They think they can win the case without working in a senior’s chambers so what can I tell them?And it is not that they are not doing well, they are doing quite well. But most of the time they forget (pauses) In Bengali there is a saying that unless there is a guru you cannot grow.”“It is easy to say and difficult to digest, but you should not run after money in the initial stages” he goes on, “unless you are properly trained, you will have trouble in the future.You have to read. Read the petitions, read the law, read the arguments. You have to read.”“But nowadays lawyers who are joining the profession think that they don’t need any assistance and they can do whatever they like. With due respect to my junior friends, this is not the correct approach.”.In a career that has spanned as long as his, Ashok Banerjee did get a number of opportunities to become a judge. He declined all of them. Partly because of what his father told him (“If you are elevated it will be an injustice to the clients!” and partly, one suspects, because Ashok Banerjee loves his freedom..“After all [becoming a judge] is a form of service. Right now, I have the courage to say to anybody, anybody at all, that I do not agree with them!”.This freedom is something he evidently attaches a lot of importance too, his voice almost breaking with emotion as he says,.“I am only answerable to my conscience. I never run after anything. Look, in this materialistic world, everything is a purchasable commodity except peace of mind.”.He also has a slightly cynical, some would say realistic, idea of what it means to be a judge..“So long as you are a judge, people will say “My Lord, my lord” but after your retirement nobody will bother. When they enter the service, they know they will have to retire at some point of time. No one is indispensible in this world, my friend. No one.”.Ask him about the manner in which judges are appointed, and Ashok Banerjee gives an answer that may reflect a hard learnt patience tempered with practical experience..“The process which is now good, after some time it will become very bad. Any procedure or process will be vitiated if somebody thinks of his own interest. It is very difficult to control things like emotion, affection etc.”.Banerjee does not seem to place too much faith in legislations such as the Judicial Appointments Bill; instead he argues that unless the people who man these institutions are beyond reproach, legislation can be of little help. He also highlights on the need to introduce accountability within the system..“Everybody should have some accountability. We are all human beings and anything can happen. There may be some vices hidden inside that nobody knows about. There must be a enquiry to find out the factual aspects.”.It is at this juncture that he is asked about former Supreme Court judge AK Ganguly and the allegations of sexual harassment made out against him. At that point of time, Ganguly had recently resigned as head of the West Bengal Human Rights Commission but not before a section of Calcutta lawyers had protested against what they deemed to be a political conspiracy against Ganguly..It turns out that Banerjee and Ganguly are good friends, their friendship going back to the 1950’s. Initially, Banerjee refuses to comment about the entire affair,.“I know him for more than 40 years and he is a very good friend of mine. So many news agencies wanted to talk to me but I refused. I don’t like to make any comments but what has happened is not palatable.”.At the same time, Banerjee does say that,.“A judge must be more cautious than other people. The post [a judge] is holding – everybody will try to take advantage of it. But the judge should not allow anybody to do so. It is a very sensitive post so why should I give the opportunity for people to open their mouths. Why are you asking a young girl to come to a hotel?”.In fact, this is not the only aspect of Ganguly’s actions that Ashok Banerjee is critical of; he says that Ganguly should have challenged the jurisdiction of the 3-member investigating committee that the Supreme Court set up..“Ganguly could have challenged it. He could have said that the Committee had no jurisdiction. But he filed his objection and that is the problem he himself created. Why did he submit to the jurisdiction? He took a chance. And that shows there is something wrong somewhere.”.That is all he is willing to say, and he suggests that we move on to another topic. At this point of time, a Sub-Inspector of the Kolkata Police force enters the room, no doubt to brief the government pleader on some State litigation. Banerjee asks him to wait for a few minutes, my cue to wrap up the interview. His photograph is taken (for which he removes his spectacles) and he seems pleased with the result. Just before leaving his office, I turn around to see him hunched once more over his desk, in discussion with the SI, poring over the papers in front of him. Reading..(This interview was conducted in Calcutta on January 31, 2014. It is the first of a four-part series of interviews of leadings lawyers from the Calcutta Bar)