South India’s Ancient Jewel!
Sir Subbier Subramania Iyer was an Indian lawyer, jurist and freedom fighter who, along with Annie Besant, founded the Home Rule Movement. He was born in the Madurai district of Madras Presidency. On completion of his schooling in Madurai, he qualified as a lawyer from the University of Madras and went on to practice as a lawyer in Madurai and Madras, before being appointed a Judge of the Madras High Court, in 1891. He also served as the first Indian Chief Justice of the Madras High Court, before retiring in 1907.
Subramania Iyer was born in Madurai in the Madras Presidency, on 1 October 1842. His father Mr. Sooravally Subbier Aiyer was the legal agent of the Raja of Ramnad’s zamindari but died when Subramania Iyer was barely two years old. He had his early education at the English Mission School, Madurai, and then joined the Zilla School, Madurai, in 1856, from where he completed his schooling.
Upon joining the administrative service, he served as a clerk in the Deputy Collector’s Office, Madurai, Deputy Collector’s Office, Ramnad, and the Collector’s Office, Madurai. While working in the Collector’s Office, he studied privately for the Pleader’s Examination. Though unable to secure a ‘Sanad’ to practice, he was appointed the Public Prosecutor, when the Criminal Penal Code came into force in 1862. Desiring to practice as a lawyer, he studied privately for the Matriculation Examination and passed the same in 1865, followed by the F.A. examination in 1866. Two years later, in 1868, he passed the B.L. examination from Presidency College, Madras. He served as an apprentice under J. C. Mill, Barristerat- Law, and thus qualified himself to practice as a Vakil.
Practicing as a Vakil in Madurai from 1869 to 1885, he appeared in some important cases, the most notable among them being the Ramnad Zamindar’s Case and the Meenakshi Temple Funds Misappropriation Case. While in Madura, he also earned a reputation as a public worker, being appointed a Municipal Commissioner of Madurai and a member of the Local Board, besides being elected a member of the Devasthanam Committee of the Meenakshi Temple at Madurai. He also served as the Vice-Chairman of the Madurai Municipality, from 1882 until his departure for Madras.
After his wife, Lakshmi’s death in 1884, he shifted to Madras, where he emerged as a formidable rival to the redoubtable lawyers Bhashyam Aiyangar and Eardley Norton. Recognizing his merit, the Government appointed him Government Pleader and Public Prosecutor in 1888, the first Indian to be appointed as Government Pleader, he appeared in two sensational cases – the Nageswara Iyer Forgery Case and the Tirupati Mahant Case. He was appointed an Acting Judge in 1891 and continued in that position until being appointed a Judge of the Madras High Court in January 1895, succeeding Sir Muthuswamy Iyer to the bench of that Court.
As Judge, amongst other cases, he presided over the insolvency court which investigated into the crash of a Madras bank, Arbuthnot & Co, in 1906. He also acted as the Chief Justice of the Madras High Court in 1899, 1903 and 1906, the first Indian to do so. After serving as a judge of the Madras High Court for 12 years, he resigned on 13 November 1907 due to failing sight and was succeeded by Mr. Chettur Sankaran Nair.
Subramania Iyer was nominated as a member of the Legislative Council of Madras by the Government, in 1884 and left a creditable record as a non-official member of the Council. Serving as a member of the Malabar Land Tenure Committee (1885), largely due to his initiative, an act was passed providing compensation for tenants’ improvement in Malabar. Nominated for a second time, Subramania Iyer made his association with the Council as useful as possible under the system extant then. One of the founding members of the Indian National Congress, he led the Madras delegation to its first session at Bombay, in December 1885, where he seconded a resolution proposed by K. T. Telang urging the increase of the elected element in the Legislative Councils and for councilors to be given real and effective powers. He used to attend sessions of the Congress until he became a Judge of the High Court.
He agreed to serve as the Honorary President of the All India Home Rule League established in Madras on 1 September 1916, by Mrs. Annie Besant, whose arrest was ordered on 16 June 1917, by Lord Pentland, Governor of Madras. As President of the League, he took up the cause of Mrs. Besant and her colleagues and started a movement for their release, which occasioned his rupture with the Government.
Subjected to scathing criticism in the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the Secretary of State, Edwin Montagu, and the Viceroy, Lord Chelmsford, rebuked him when he met them in Madras in 1918 to make a representation on the proposed political reforms. A few days later, Subramania Iyer renounced his knighthood and returned the insignia to the Government.
His interest in the scholarly aspects of law led to his residence, the Beach House on the Marina at Mylapore, being used for the “Saturday Club” that met at 11 AM every week, between 1888 and 1891, with all leading members of the Madras Bar participating, and cases being critically analyzed. At one of these meetings, it was decided to start ‘The Madras Law Journal’.
During his tenure as Judge of the Madras High Court, he introduced the practice of referring to American jurisprudence in addition to the English, which had been the sole point of reference until then.
He was nominated Senator of the Madras University in 1885 and continued to be connected with that institution till 1907. As a member of the Senate, he advanced many reforms in education. He was a member of the Syndicate for the University for some time and was appointed Vice Chancellor of the University in 1896.
The Madras University conferred on him the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Law in 1908, making him the first recipient of an honorary degree from the University. He presided over the Madras Students’ Convention in 1916 and delivered the Presidential Address. He also served as the Chairman of the Council of Native Education for two years. He delivered a series of lectures at Madras University on Ancient Indian Polity, in 1914 which were published in 1916.
The Government awarded a Certificate of Merit to Subramania Iyer on 1st January 1877 as a mark of their appreciation of his services to the public, on the occasion of the Proclamation Durbar at Delhi.
He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire, in 1890, and was elevated to a Knight-Commander of the same order on New Year’s Day, 1900. In 1893, he had the title of Dewan Bahadur conferred upon him.
He died on 5 December 1924 and was survived by three sons. The Mani Iyer Hall in Triplicane was built by the Theosophists in his memory and named after him. He is also commemorated by a statue, unveiled in 1935, outside the Senate House of the Madras University.
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