From Tilak to Chagla: Bombay HC launches podcast to showcase glorious heritage years

MUMBAI: The promo for the podcast features the pick of the legal pantheon – Justice Sujata Manohar, Justices Rohinton Nariman, BN Srikrishna, Shahrukh Kathawala, Ramesh Dhanuka and Shiavax Vazifdar. Each one a luminary holding stories, ideas and erudition that distil the entire span of India’s judicial system into an audio broadcast that should become essential listening for anyone even remotely concerned with how the third pillar functions. That audio broadcast is the Bombay Bar Association’s Podcast, which premiered on Friday – it is available on You Tube and all major streaming apps.

Here’s a sampling from the first episode: “A judge is a judge; why should you say that because he’s a Hindu, he will hold in favour of a Hindu? He’s not a proper judge if that is so,” says former Supreme Court judge Sujata Manohar (she also served as chief justice of the Bombay high court). Manohar makes this remark in context of her appointment of Justice Srikrishna to spearhead the 1992-93 Bombay riots probe committee, despite clamours in the media for a non-Hindu and non-Muslim judge to be tasked with the job.

Straight talking

It is insights and personal reminiscences such as the one above that are to be found in the inaugural episode (and indeed the subsequent seven) of the BBA Podcast. “The principal idea was to capture stories of personal and professional lives of those who were practicing at the Bar and then became judges,” explains Advocate Ankita Singhania, member of the BBA Standing Committee, adding, “A lot of these stories are undocumented, but important in terms of documenting the history and culture of those who practice law.”

Adds honorary secretary of the BBA, Advocate Vishal Kanade, “We sought to pass the collective learning of senior judges on to the next generation. One aspect of the brief was: What advice could retired judges give from their personal experiences?”

But it’s not only targeted at junior and aspiring lawyers. “We wanted to give non-lawyers a window into the life of a legal professional, perhaps a small snapshot of what it entails. The aim is to become more relatable,” adds Advocate Singhania.

The legal pantheon

The first season features seven eminent judges and two advocate-generals, including, apart from the ones mentioned above, Justices BN Srikrishna and Suresh C Gupte. The season finale sees incumbent Advocate-General for the State of Maharashtra Dr Birendra Saraf in conversation with the man who held the post from 2005 to 2012 Ravi Kadam.

One of the notable characteristics of this podcast is that it does away with the conventional host. Shaun Fanthome, COO of Maed in India (the production company that brought the BBA Podcast to life) and a former lawyer, says, “The BBA liked the idea of a ‘non-host-driven podcast’.”

He continues, “They wanted a format that involved a senior advocate interviewing a retired judge. Since there would already be a rapport between them, it allowed for a freer and more nuanced conversation than you’d get with a third party.”

A case in point is Justice Srikrishna’s candour while discussing the “rank interference with judicial independence” vis-a-vis the proposed National Judicial Appointments Commission in a forthcoming episode. Or Justice Manohar’s recounting to Senior Advocate Nitin Thakker of her days as a young lawyer at the Bar, when a senior lawyer enquired whether she was simply there to look for a husband.

A dual format podcast

One of the objectives of the Association is to organise lectures and seminars for junior lawyers and members. “Standing Committee member Firoz Bharucha and Association member Aditya Bapat worked out the concept of a podcast that could take the concept of lectures and seminars forward and to a larger audience,” recalls Advocate Kanade. It would be the first time that an Indian Bar Association would have a podcast of its own.

But that wasn’t all. “We wanted to have a video and an audio podcast. While the video version showcases the rapport between the interviewer and interviewee, we realised that if we just reproduce the video show in audio form, a lot of context would be missed,” points out Fanthome. As a result, the audio version features a narrator who weaves in some back story. “And we go deeper with the audio version,” he adds.

Why you should tune in

“If you like to hear stories, this is a riveting collection,” says Advocate Singhania, taking note of Justice Manohar’s recollection of her days at university. “As an alumnus of Oxford at a time when there was no gender segregation, it was interesting to me to hear about her time at Oxford when she went to an all-girls college.”

For Advocate Kanade, it’s a running thread that forms the most valuable insight he took away from the podcasts. “That almost everyone alluded to the fact that you need to just hang in there was my biggest takeaway,” he says. “The initial days of the practice are tough and the gestation period is long. To get the hang of the basics, despite having come from law school, confluence of theoretical information and practical application takes time.” The manner in which each judge describes this particular phenomenon goes some way in putting a human face to the authors of court judgments we’ve all encountered at some point or another.

“Personally, I didn’t even realise how much goes into judgeship,” admits Fanthome. “For instance, I didn’t know Justice Srikrishna went in a submarine when he headed the 6th Pay Commission or visited the border post at Tiger Hill in Kargil.” Noting how the human challenges faced by the judge really resonated with him, he adds, “One of my favourite episodes is with Justice Gupte. His story about emerging from a middle-class Maharashtrian background to becoming a judge had a personal touch that really moved me.”

Catch a new episode of the BBA Podcast every Friday on YouTube and all streaming platforms. Episode 2 drops on February 23.