परिचय - ३ - जज (1958-1978)

अधिवक्ता वर्ग से श्री शिव दयाल मात्र ४२ वर्ष की अल्प आयु में सन्‌ १९५८ में मध्य प्रदेश हाइ कोर्ट के स्थायी न्यायाधीश (जज) नियुक्त हुए । सन्‌ १९७५ में वरिष्ठता के आधार पर चीफ़ जस्तिस नियुक्त हुए और सन्‌ १९७८ में सेवानिवृत्त हुए। उन २० वर्षों में जस्टिस शिवदयाल ने हज़ारों निर्णय दिये । अनेक अवसरों पर अखिल भारतीय समाचार पत्रों व पत्रिकाओं ने उनकी निर्भयता पर साधुवाद दिया ।

चीफ़ जस्टिस शिवदयाल ने अपने राज्य के न्यायालयों में नयी गति और नये उत्साह से कार्य कराया । उनके कार्यकाल में न्यायपालिका के लिये तीन सूत्र थे :

• न्याय वास्तविक हो ।
• न्याय शीघ्र हो ।
• न्याय सस्ता हो .
  

Judges' Diary : न्याय डायरी 1976

"Late Justice Shiv Dayal (Shrivastava) during his tenure as Chief Justice of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh brought out Judges’ Diary as an official publication of the High Court. It included Judge’s Prayer running into three stanzas.

Invoking the mercy of the Supreme Lord, he described the Judges as “Thy servants whom Thou sufferest to sit in earthly seats of judgement to administer Thy justice to Thy people”.

He begs from the infinite mercy of the Supreme Lord, so as “to direct and dispose my heart that I may this day fulfil all my duty in Thy fear and fall into no error of judgment.”

In the third stanza, he says ___ “Give me grace to hear patiently, to consider diligently, to understand rightly, and to decide justly! Grant me due sense or humility, that I may not be misled by my willfulness, vanity or egotism”.

Rightly, the Judges are something special in the democratic form of government governed by a Constitution and, therefore, the most exacting standards can be none too high."

The above excerpt is taken from the First M.C. Setalvad Memorial Lecture given on Tuesday, 22nd February, 2005 by Hon’ble Shri R.C. Lahoti, Chief Justice of India (page 16 of pdf) on the topic "ATTEMPTED CODIFICATION OF CANONS OF JUDICIAL ETHICS".

Rare Photo

I have one extremely rare photograph of Respected Tauji (Shri Justice Shiv Dayal Ji Shrivastava) and Pitaji (Shri Jagannath Prasad Shrivastava, Advocate), when Tauji had his first visit to Gwalior as Chief Justice of Madhya Pradesh High Court. That time respected Pitaji was President of Gwalior Bar Association.

Both are offering respect to each other by doing "Namastey". One lawyer said these are two brothers and on this respected Pitaji's reply was "No it is Bar Association President who is welcoming the Chief Justice. If it were two brothers, then the younger one would have been touching the feet of elder and the elder one would have been giving his blessings to the younger". Respected Tauji also said "yes, Jagannath ji is right".

Abhay