Introduction: With the selfless guidance and statesmanship of the legal profession, the Indian national movement gained participation and its impact reached far beyond immediate political consequences. The movement that began in 1857 as a sepoy mutiny took the shape of the nationwide struggle for Independence from the British Raj. It incorporated various national and regional campaigns, agitations and efforts of both non-violent and militant philosophies. The Indian freedom struggle was won by the army of lawyers who used words for ammunition.
Since the lawyers had a supreme understanding of the complicated and intricate laws that were being sent to India for the formation of government and for the administration of justice, they were best suited to discuss their implications and repeal them as well as draw the English lawmakers to a point of making the law as pro-Indians as possible
- Sardar Ajit Singh
Sardar Ajit Singh Sandhu was born into a Sikh family from Punjab, India. He studied up to the metric system at Anglo Sanskrit School Jalandhar and later attended Law College (UP) in Bareilly.
Sardar Ajit Singh spent 38 years in exile fighting for the freedom of India. Ajit Singh was the youngest brother of Sardar Kishan Singh and uncle of his Shaheed Bhagat Singh, a visionary and revolutionary thinker. After passing the entrance exam at the Anglo Sanskrit High School in Jalandhar in 1894, Singh studied at DAV College in Lahore. He was later admitted to Bareilly College to study law, but until then his attention was preoccupied with the political and social situation in India.
In 1907, Ajit Singh was arrested and deported to Mandalay Prison, Myanmar, for leading a peasant rights agitation known as “Pagri Sambar Jatta” to mark the 1857 50th anniversary of the First War of Independence. was planned to be
- Govind Ballabh Pant
He was one of his “modern Indian architects” and was well known as a freedom fighter. In his early years as a lawyer, he influenced many with his speeches and fought against British rule without political support. He passed a Hindu code mandating monogamy for Hindu men. It gave Hindu women the right to divorce and inherit ancestral property. He also stabilised the economic situation in his state of Uttar Pradesh.
- Krishna Iyer
At a time when there was no recognition of legal practice, he pioneered the legal aid movement and is now gaining momentum to reach out to those in need. Awarded Padma Vibhushan. Judge Iyer was known for his groundbreaking decisions, including reforming India’s criminal justice system through changes to prisons and police stations.
- P.N.Bhagwati
He was the 17th Chief Justice of India and recipient of the Padma Vibhushan Award. Justice Bhagwati is a pioneer of the judicial activism movement in India. I also had the opportunity to be a member of the Human Resources Commission of the United Nations and the International Labor Organization. Without him, there would be no concept of public interest litigation or absolute liability in India today.
- Nani Palkhivala
One of India’s most eloquent and articulate lawyers, his work remains exemplary for today’s generation. He was an Indian jurist and economist who achieved such greatness in a very short time. Kerala through interpretation of constitutional aspects and embedded concepts. He was the centre of attention in court, with law students and young members of the legal community gathering to watch him.
- Cornelia Sorabji
She was a woman who came out of the kitchen in the early 1900s, the first to become a lawyer and also the first woman to practice law in both India and England.
She was the one who opened the gates of the male-dominated law school to equally capable women. Without her, we wouldn’t have the same number of female lawyers in the legal profession today.
- C.R. Das
C.R. Das was chairman of the Indian National Congress for one time and was also a co-founder of the Swaraj party, but almost a century later he was named ‘Deshbandhu’ or ‘Friend of the Nation’. ” Das’s political career only lasted six years, but that was after he plunged into the Indian freedom struggle as a lawyer and helped many revolutionaries. Das was a lawyer with the Honorable Society, England.
- Asaf Ali
He was an Indian independence activist and a prominent Indian lawyer. He was the first Indian Ambassador to the United States. He also served as Governor of Orissa. He participated in the Indian independence movement and was imprisoned many times.
As a lawyer, he defended Shaheed Bhagat Singh and his Batukeshwar Dutt after bombing the Central Legislative Assembly during the passage of a controversial ordinance on 8 April 1929. Ali became the convenor of the INA defence team established by Congress for the defence of the officers of the INA charged with treason later in November 1945.
