Read Time: 09 minutes

Dr. Subramanian Swamy needs no introduction. Besides being an MP of Rajya Sabha, he has also filed, argued and won some of the most important litigations in the country. In this interview, Dr. Swamy speaks to Thyagarajan Narendran about what made him approach the courts in the first place, his experience appearing in person in the court, his opinion of judicial activism and how he plans to take the Swamy brand of litigation forward. 
 

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1) Your first litigation was against IIT-Delhi, why did you choose to go to the courts as opposed to going the bureaucratic way?

My termination was at the direction of the then PM Indira Gandhi on orders of Communists in India such as Kumaramangalam and G. Parthasarathi. So, the only forum where I had a chance was in Court depending on which Court it came before. Ultimately it took 20 years for the first victory and another 25 years for final victory and includes all past salary dues at 8% interest.

2) Could you tell us how you prepared to argue in person for the first time?

I was first coached to fight in-person by my wife's relative P.R. Vakil, a defamation criminal case filed by Ram Jethmalani in 1982 on behalf of the Mayor of Mumbai. I won the case. By then my wife who had a Ph.D. in Mathematics, had gone to college and got a degree in Law from the Delhi University. So till 2010 she did all the "Advocate on Record" work for me. Jayalalitha as CM had filed numerous defamation and other criminal cases. Jethmalani filed four more defamation cases as a complainant and lost all of them. I began filing cases of corruption cases against Politicians. The first was against Karnataka CM Ramakrishna Hegde. He filed a Rs. 5 crore Defamation Suit against me. Sr Advocate Santosh Hegde represented him. When I was near winning the case because of my use of Discovery and Interrogatries, R.K. Hegde then withdrew the suit. After that, in 2G Spectrum Scam and other corruption cases I began to get young law students who wanted to intern with me !! With them and my wife to correct the drafts, I waged war on corruption. Many of these interns have blossomed and now practising in Courts. They continue to help me replacing my wife's load. Now she is my "advisor".

3) Who was the judge you appeared before first and what was the exchange like?

The Mumbai Metropolitan Magistrate. He was sympathetic and admirer of my anti-Emergency activities.  

4) How has the litigating in the Supreme Court evolved over the last 40 odd years since you first approached it?

Frankly for me personally it is somewhat sensitive. Earlier when I was in my thirties and forties, most judges were older than me. Paying respect to elders is our culture. Now they are judges whom I knew as youngsters or just out of Law School.

 

5) What is your opinion on the new idea of judicial activism wherein people ask the courts to sit in judgment of every social issue?

Nothing wrong if permitted under the Constitution or derivative law.  

6) Did you follow the Hijab hearing?

No, since my opinion was made earlier. So Court or no Court, School uniform is a reasonable restriction on the fundamental right to clothes and dresses.

7) What do you think of the outcome of the Hijab hearing?

Excellent and absolutely correct

8) You recently sought the listing of a matter seeking Ram Setu to be declared as a monument of national importance, could you give us a glimpse into your arguments?

Ram Setu is a monument of national importance as per the constitution in Section 2 read with Section 16 in the Ancient Monuments Act of 1958

9) Among the many seniors you have opposed over the last few years, who was the most difficult to tackle?

None were difficult. Either they were highly cultured whom I befriended or bad people besides being corrupt.

10) What is your plan going forward, are you mentoring some young lawyers in the Swamy brand of litigation/arguments ?

Continue like a Professor never to retire! Young lawyers I mention on Twitter when a case is concluded.