Date: SEP-21, 2024, Occasion: ICFAI Law School, Hyderabad, Alumni Meet 2024
Respected Hon’ble Dean, the Director, the faculty of ICFAI, and the young live gathering of ICFAI Law Graduates!

 

Good Evening to you All,

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At the outset, I thank the ICFAI Academy for inviting me to participate in this splendid evening. In the past there were several occasions that I was invited, but for some reason or other I was unable to make it, but this time I felt I should attend when I was informed that today’s alumni meet is from the Class of 2015 onwards until those who have graduated this year. Especially for the reason that this gathering consists of those who have already experienced being an advocate until those who have recently graduated and stepped into the legal world, I felt that this opportunity to share my experience should not be missed.

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An Advocate as per Sec.24 of The Advocates Act 1961 is the one who has completed the age of 21, who had obtained a law degree, and who is enrolled in a state Bar Council. But, I call such person as only a ‘Law Graduate’ and not an advocate. I have my own perspective about it! Your academic qualification does not necessarily qualify you as an Advocate, its only the endorsement from the institution, that you are eligible to become one.

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I have found many a young advocates, lacking the courage to experiment having a pitiful foresight of what they need to accomplish by experience and mostly worrying too much on the placements and packages. Please note that one can never be identified by his or her scale of remuneration or earnings. Those who aim for a higher remuneration without going through the process of evolving into a ‘responsible advocate’ or ‘The Quintessential Advocate’ as I have titled are going to be terribly disappointed. Earnings are only a byproduct in the process of learning and it may or may not meet one’s expectations in the short run, for such bounty earnings can only be the means of some unprofessional choices. To make life more authentic, one should experiment and then ‘experience’ to gain true knowledge. Knowing is only through experience. The real process of emerging into a successful advocate is within you and not elsewhere!

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Confucius the famous Chinese philosopher once stated, “I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand”

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To the surprise of many in the audience, I am now 68 years of age, but not much older than the Class of 2015 here, for I had acquired by Law Degree only in the year 2013. I was born in an family of entrepreneurs, and as my family were the pioneers in the cinema industry since 1921 for my grandfather established the first cinema theatre in Andhra Pradesh at Vijayawada. Hence by family tradition though I had high standards of schooling I pursued only a business career. After many successes and failures in various business activities initially, I had a very good run in the manufacture and exports of leather products until the year 2007, whereafter in the year 2008 in view of the global recession, I too bore the brunt. At this juncture, I had the disagreement with the bankers with their views in the process of revival, and what followed was the imminent disaster of my life, for the sole reason that the Banks wielded the Securitisation Act since the year 2002 in a manner that was not as per law. The legislation is in fact not draconian at all, as many victims feel, but it was the ‘enforcers’ that were.

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During this legal proceedings, I realised that comparatively I had a much better legal acumen than those advocates I had engaged. In a miraculous manner, all my faculties that I had nurtured since my school days came to my rescue. The proficiency in the english language, the creativity, the discipline of time management, my voracious reading habits, and to top among all, the attitude not to agree with anything that was not right including the ‘authority’ of my wards. These characteristics that were formed in layers over a period of time, just as beds that in a sedimentary rock, built my character since my childhood and became my natural elements and they took charge of the change.

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With the suggestion of an elderly advocate whom I had hired for some civil matters, I took up the Law course at the age of 54 and accomplished the same in 2013 at my age of 57. The shocking news to you all is that, apart from my own case that was handled by me, some large industrialists and entrepreneurs approached me for consultation before I even completed my 1st year of law. The opponents in my case was rattled for I myself drafted my Writ Petitions and argued as a ‘party in person’ before the High Court of Madras and before the High Court of AP and obtained favourable restraining orders. This unbelievable tenacity and determination was not digestible to my opponents and soon I was called for a truce.

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To everyone’s shock, I established a firm by name, ‘Business Rescue Strategies’ to render legal advise and solutions to destitute borrowers from banks. I published electronic journals, newsletters, and even monthly paperback journals by name Debt Equity. In the first 5 years of my practice as a solicitor, I had been instrumental in rescuing destitute borrowers by resolving debts of more than Rs 2500 Crores, giving them respite with some residual value to live happily with their families. My core focus was on the entrepreneur who generates wealth for the nation and in his recognition I had framed the slogan ‘Jai Jawan Jai Kisan, Jai Udhyami’ complimenting to the famous cry of Hon’ble Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri, our late Prime Minister.

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As I am here to talk about my experiences and my insight, I need to inform you about my childhood habits. The faculties that an advocate must possess have unknowingly inculcated in me - listening, reading, writing, creativity, and emotional constraint. The abilities that gave me a quantum leap of more then 35 years. As a solicitor, in the beginning of my professional career, I employed advocates having experience of not less than 20 years standing and took workshops to brief them of the case  to represent. I not only prepared the cases, but also provided them the Notes for

Arguments. Here itself you can count that I was ahead by 20 years.

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After my entrance to the Courts, especially the DRTs, DRATs, the High Court of AP and the High Court of Bombay, the NCLT, my opponents felt the fresh breeze of arguments which they never encountered, and they enquired me where I was practicing earlier. They were Senior Advocates. Apart form which the High Courts especially the Hon’ble Bombay High Court, recorded my name in the Orders with the caption ‘Senior’. I might not be a designated Senior, but my representation was found  to be a sound one. Hence I can count another 15 years of quantum leap, in total I had travelled 35 years, and I had aged more than 20 years, for the time I had put in.

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My evolution from an entrepreneur, to a ‘destitute’ litigant, to a consultant, a solicitor, and to an Advocate cannot be called a ‘Myth’ or a ‘Miracle’ but an act of fate which started to engineer itself only because of my habits, and I say boldly, that it was not an act of ‘God’. To me it was the nature of spontaneity to which I was attracted and I obeyed. At every juncture of my life there was a loss and a change for betterment, and I never got deterred with despondency. Marcus Aurelius, one of the famous 4 great Roman Emperors who reigned during 161-180 BC also known as the Philosopher Emperor, in his diary called ‘Meditations’ wrote that, “Loss in nothing else but change, and change is nature’s delight.” I find that many young law graduates are afraid of change, they feel comfort in safe placements.

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Covid period geared my abilities to a next level. Those that I had garnered since my childhood at school until my twenties, which are the art of reading and creativity. I then realised that those abilities were the ones that were the real reason for the ‘immeasurable’ quantum of leap to my legal profession. I had this zeal to read and write, not the academic books but everything else than that. During COVID I started publishing my experiences in the form of a blog named ‘Prem’s World’ on every Saturday since October 2020, and they covered a number of incidents that occurred since my 3rd Standard at the School with my renewed perceptions. The count is almost one hundred Blogs, and my readers were all around the world, including entrepreneurs, adventurers, advocates, and retired Judges who had the passion for good reading.

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Rule.15 of the Bar Council of India Rules state that, “It is the duty of an advocate fearlessly to uphold the interests of his client by all fair and honourable means without regard to any unpleasant consequences to himself or any other. He shall defend a person accused of a crime regardless of his personal opinion as to the guilt of the accused, bearing in mind that his loyalty is to the law which requires that no man should be convicted without adequate evidence.”

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‘Good Governance’ is a right that every citizen deserves, but unfortunately it has found itself as a promise yet to be delivered in an ‘election manifesto’ of every political party. Whenever any citizen is subject to injustice or a wrong done to him by any one of the three limbs of our constitution, he needs an advocate to represent him in a court of law; and it happens more often, beyond our imagination, for which reason this society needs more responsible and capable advocates to represent them, not just ‘law graduates’ but ‘responsible’ advocates. Hence I consider the profession of an advocate also as a ‘service’ to society, and not otherwise. Most of the leaders who fought for the Independence of India, were advocates. They fought ‘fearlessly’ against the colonial rule of the British and they were imprisoned for the unlawful act called ‘freedom fighting’ at that point of time.

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To sum up; an advocate is advised to support the ‘destitute’ who are the victims of ‘bad governance’ or misuse of power. In this journey, you’ll be lucky in case you have a tough opposition, for you will have the scope to learn more from failures than in success. I always doubt my success and I never dreamt of any future, I only realised myself of what I am, and deal in my own terms. Carl Jung, the famous western psychoanalyst stated that, “Who looks outside dreams, who looks inside awakens.” Hence I advise you all to not to fall into the trap of any ‘dream’. So don’t compare yourself with other law graduates of any other educational institute or even Harvard, because you can start yourself on self-educating and take off from your birth place ICFAI the most competent institution to catapult you to immeasurable heights.

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I treat my legal profession as my religion which is not a ‘belief’ like any other, and I start my day at 4am with the rituals of reading and preparing the checklist for the day and get ready for the defeats and wounds of the day’s battle as a ‘war general’ testing my ground, against the attack of my opponents. “Personal quality is the basis of all quality”, and I can only assure you all from my experience and realisation that the vigours I had demonstrated including the follow-up of a strict regime shall make you all young graduates unparalleled.

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Thank You