Guna Vasantha Pai was a Senior Advocate of the

Madras High Court The Madras High Court is a High Court in India. It has appellate jurisdiction over the state of Tamil Nadu and the union territory of Puducherry. It is located in Chennai, and is the third oldest high court of India after the Calcutta High C ...

and

Indian Supreme Court The Supreme Court of India ( IAST: ) is the supreme judicial authority of India and is the highest court of the Republic of India under the constitution. It is the most senior constitutional court, has the final decision in all legal matters ...

, a freedom fighter, activist and a member of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Council (MLC). He is best known for filing one of the first

public interest litigations Public interest law refers to legal practices undertaken to help poor, marginalized, or under-represented people, or to effect change in social policies in the public interest, on 'not for profit' terms ( ''pro bono publico''), often in the fields ...

against the then sitting Chief Justice of the Madras High court S. Ramachandra Iyer after Pai found evidence that the judge had forged his date of birth to avoid compulsory retirement at the age of 60 and the judge's younger brother sent invitations to celebrate his 60th birthday. This led the then

Chief Justice of India The chief justice of India (IAST: ) is the chief judge of the Supreme Court of India as well as the highest-ranking officer of the Indian Judiciary. The Constitution of India grants power to the president of India to appoint, in consultation w ...

P. B. Gajendragadkar Pralhad Balacharya Gajendragadkar (16 March 1901 – 12 June 1981) originally from Gajendra-Gad, a historic fort and town in southern India was the 7th Chief Justice of India, serving from February 1964 to March 1966. Career Prahlad Bal ...

to ask Ramachandra Iyer to resign as the case would severely damage the judiciary and he resigned before the case came up for hearing. This led the case to be dismissed as he had resigned. He was elected to the Tamil Nadu Legislative Council and he refused to take oath from the then pro-tem chairman, Abdul Wahab as he had advocated secession and swore himself as a legislator. His oath was upheld by the

Early life

At a young age, Vasantha Pai joined public life. He actively participated in India's freedom struggle as a response to Mahatma’s call. Pai enrolled as a student of the

Madras Law College Dr. Ambedkar Government Law College, commonly known by its former name Madras Law College, is a law school, located in Chennai (Madras), Tamil Nadu, India. It is also referred to as Government Law College or GLC, Chennai. It was established in ...

. With lot of struggles, he obtained his law degree. Later Pai got his early practical training from his father, Guna Pai, who was a famous commercial lawyer in Ernakulam, Kerala. Pai moved to

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

in the 1950s and started his legal practice. During the same time, the Indian High Courts began in exploring their new constitutional powers under the writ jurisdiction. Vasantha Pai specialized in election law issues and corporate matters and became a well-known authority on these legal subjects.

References

Year of birth missing 2009 deaths Members of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Council {{India-law-bio-stub