Judicial Activism in India - A Festschrift in honour of Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer

Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer is an eminent Judge, profound legal scholar, a bold innovator, a powerful spokesman for social justice and above all a close and intimate friend of mine. Ordinarily friendships are formed when one is young and friendships, then formed, last a whole life time and it is not often that at an advanced age one comes across a person with whom one becomes close and friendly. Justice Krishna Iyer is one such rare person with whom I became emotionally attached no sooner I met him forty years ago. I remember it was in the year 1972 when Justice Krishna Iyer came to Gujarat in his capacity as a member of the law Commission of India that I happened to meet him for the first time. We soon found that we shared common ideology and common aspirations for social justice. A brief talk with him was sufficient to convince me that here was a remarkably unusual person who was a crusader for social justice and who was deeply involved with the misery and suffering of the poor and the downtrodden and who was prepared to wage a relentless war against exploitation and injustice.