Justice Davar “banished”

The portrait of Justice Dinshaw Davar which hangs in the Bombay High Court is to be removed, the state government of Maharashtra announced on July 23, 2008. This was reported in the Indian Express (IE) the following day. The reason stated for this step is that Davar had "punished” freedom fighter Lokmanya Tilak a century ago. On July 22, 1908 Davar had convicted Tilak to six years’ imprisonment on charges of sedition for his article in Kesari, a Marathi newspaper founded by him, notes IE.

Justice Davar: authority on Parsi law

Minister of state for law and judiciary Hasan Mushrif gave this assurance in the Legislative Council after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member Madhukar Chavan raised the issue during a discussion. Davar, an authority on Parsi law whose orders in the historic Parsi Punchayet Case (Davar-Beaman judgment) are still being cited by advocates, is not alone in this chastisement. The bust of Chief Justice Sir Norman Macleod, also in the High Court, will similarly be banished from the premises because he had cancelled Mahatma Gandhi’s barrister’s license in 1923 following his conviction and imprisonment for articles written and published in Young India, reports IE.

According to the High Court’s website Macleod is credited with opening up "various offices in the High Court to Indians, which had earlier been reserved for Europeans.”

Ironically it was the BJP that sucessfully lobbied for placing in Parliament the portrait of Veer Savarkar, one of the men charged with conspiring to murder Gandhi.