The name of Sir Shah Muhammad Sulaiman occupies a place of pride in the history of Allahabad High Court which he joined as a young barrister in 1912 and left as its Chief Justice in 1937 to assume office as Judge of the Federal Court of India in New Delhi. A man of unruffled temperament, Sir Shah Muhammad Sulaiman, in whom law, science and education found a remarkable meeting place, moved through life wearing distinction with unassumed ease.
Sulaiman was born on February 3, 1886. His father, Maulvi Muhammad Usman was among the leading members of the Bar at Jaunpur. As a student he was brilliant. A first division in the matriculation examination and thereafter in the intermediate examination was followed at the Muir Central College by a first division with first place in the B.A. examination of 1906 held by the University of Allahabad.
Thus won him the United Provinces state scholarship for higher education in England. The scholarship enabled him to proceed to England. An assiduous student throughout, his ability earned him the Tripos in Mathematics in 1909 and the Tripos in Law the following year. In 1909 he appeared in the ICS examination but was not successful.
He then decided for the profession of law and qualified for the degree of Doctor of Laws from the Dublin University. After being called to the bar from the Middle Temple, Shah Sulaiman returned to India in 1911.
For some time the young barrister practised with his father at Jaunpur and in 1912 he shifted over to Allahabad.
At Allahabad, the hardworking Sulaiman impressed the judges of the court and his seniors at the bar. Often he sat in his office working late into the night and not infrequently oblivious of the hour for dinner. His wife, it is said, would adopt the desperate strategy of switching off the power mains so that the office was plunged into darkness.
Shah Sulaiman was among the first to break the tradition of confining to criminal practice as followed by most of the barristers here then. He travelled widely into the civil law and soon commanded an extensive civil practice.
Officiating judge: His comprehensive grasp of the law and his brilliant and discriminating intelligence attracted the attention of two successive Chief Justices. Sir Henry Richards and Sir Grimwood Mears and, at an age still comparatively young, he was offered an officiating appointment on the Bench. He officiated as judge of this Court from April 15, 1920 to August 11, 1920 and then followed two brief periods in 1921 and 1922. He returned to the Bar and resumed practice, but his return was short-lived.
His judicial acumen and talent, which had drawn favourable notice from all those who had appeared before him during the periods of his officiating appointment, moved the government to offer him a permanent seat on the Court. On April 4, 1923, he was elevated to the Bench as Puisne Judge.
Sapru's tribute: The judge now replaced the lawyer. Sulaiman brought to the judicial scene a combination of qualities which very soon placed him among the great judges of the court and indeed among the outstanding one of the country. As Sir Tej Baahadur Sapru was to observe later:
"Nature had endowed him with gifts of an extraordinary character. Possessed of a penetrative intellect, a mind which could dissect and analyse things as very few other minds could, a power of expression and exposition. He did not take much time on the Bench before he mades everyone feel that we had got a judge of unusual ability and unusual gifts. He earned the respect of everyone for his depth of learning, for his sweep of mind and for the promptness of his decisions."
Amiable in temperament, he encouraged junior counsels to give their best to their case, and it is universally acknowledged that no junior appearing in his Court ever felt nervous merely on the ground that he was opposed by eminent senior counsel. But be possessed little patience for the idle point or frivolous submission and, although controlled by his deeply ingrained sense of courtesy, his indignation would pour out in an ever-quickening flow of observations, meeting and demolishing the arguments of counsel.
Knighted by King: In 1929 he was knighted by the King Emperor. He acted as Chief Justice in the absence of Sir Grimwood Mears, and thereafter served as a member of the Peshawar Enquiry Committee constituted for enquiring into the riots in Peshawar in 1930.
Upon retirement of Sir Grimwood Mears as Chief Justice. Sir Shah Sulaiman was appointed to that supreme office on March 16, 1932. It was a momentous event and one of profound significance for the province. It was an event which aroused the pride of the Indians and ranked close to the powerful emotion which was already sweeping the country in the wake of the movement for political independence.
He was not the first Indian to occupy the office of Chief Justice Sir Shadi Lal had already preceded him in that respect at Lahore. But his appointment evidenced the conviction in the British mind that the Indian race could be confided with the helm of judicial administration.
Shortly after assuming office as Chief Justice, he was appointed to serve on the Capitation Rates Tribunal in England, presided over by Sir Robert Garran of Australia, with Lords Dunedin and Tornlin and Sir Shadi Lal as his colleagues. Difficult problems of military finance arose before the Tribunal, and Sir Shah Sulaiman aroused the respect of the Bar in England for the facility with which he tackled them.
As Chief Justice of this Court , he enjoyed the confidence and co-operation of his colleagues in the fullest measure. With his inherent qualities and the reputation which he had already acquired as a member of the Court, he was the natural leader of the team of judicial talent which adorned the Bench.
A word may be said here of the dispatch with which he executed the business of the day. One remarkable instance is afforded by the hearing and decision of the appeal in what is popularly known as the Meerut Conspiracy Case. (1933 A.L.J.R. 799). The trial of the case had taken as long as two years before the Sessions Judge.
The records contained voluminous evidence. When the appeal in the High Court came on for hearing, it was generally expected that even at a modest estimate a few weeks would be occupied. But before Sir Shah Sulaiman and Justice Young the hearing lasted merely eight days, and immediately upon the conclusion of the counsel's submissions, Sir Shah Sulaiman dictated the judgement in open Court.
As Federal Judge: With a reputation whose brilliance was acknowledged throughout the land, it was no surprise when in May, 1937 it was announced that Sir Shah Sulaiman had been appointed a Judge of the Federal Court of India.
When the news of his appointment was announced, there was great rejoicing shortly after the announcement, tributes were paid and congratulations showered upon him. Sir Shah Sulaiman assumed office as Judge of the Federal Court on October 1, 1937.
Almost from the very beginning of the history of the Federal Court, and indeed in the very first case, in RE C.P. Motor Spirit Act (AI.R. 1939 F.C. 1) his ability as a jurist came clearly to the fore. It was a reference made by the Governor General to the Federal Court for opinion in a dispute between the Government of the Central Provinces and Berar respecting the competence of the provincial Legislature to impose retail sales tax on motor spirit and lubricants. Characteristic of his keen enquiring mind, Sir Shah Sulaiman sought out the distinction between customs and excise duties on the one hand and retail tax on the other hand. He rested the distinction between direct and indirect taxation on concepts ordinarily familiar only to the economist and the student of public finance and appropriately set it in the historical context to which it belonged.
UK lawyer's praise: The above opinion delivered by him has been described by eminent British lawyer, J.H. Morgan, KC., in the following words:
"Now I have just been reading the judgements of the Federal Court at Delhi in that important case. One of those judgments stands out conspicuous and pre-eminent and may well prove to be Locus Classics of the law on the subject. It is a judgement worthy of the highest traditions of the House of Lords as an Appellate Tribunal and of the Privy Council itself.
I refer to the brilliant judgement of Justice Sulaiman. In depth of thought, in its powers alike of analysis and of synthesis, in grace of style and felicity of expression it is one of the most masterly judgements that I have ever had the good fortune to read. Everyone in India, interested in future development of the Constitution should study it".
Sir Shah, despite his heavy involvement with the legal profession, continued to indulge in his passion for mathematics and physical research in astronomy. With his elevation to the Bench he gave himself to it with increased devotion. Always a scientist by temperament as he was, he worked on Theory of Relativity.
Einstein opposed
Sir Shah Sulaiman, could not bring himself to accept Einstein's Theory of Relativity in all its implications. He developed a distinct theory, which assumed that radiation flowed from the surface of bodies in a motion which was resultant of the forward velocity of light and the rotational velocity of the electron. This theory, while departing from Newton's Law of Gravitation, sought also to explain the divergences noticed upon the application of Einstein's theory. It won considerable distinction in India and abroad and eminent scientists, who included Dr Harlow Shapely of Harvard, a powerful figure in the world of applied mathematics, spoke in terms of the highest appreciation of its mathematical results.
FOND OF POETRY: His refined and cultured mind was attracted to Persian and Urdu poetry, and he frequently presided over literary gatherings where such compositions were recited.
His other love, education, influenced him from his earliest years in extending his assistance to several educational institutions. He was a member of the Court of the Aligarh University and of the Allahabad University for several years. He participated in the deliberations of the Executive Council of the Allahabad University.
The Aligarh University, especially, is heavily indebted to him. For it was there that as Vice-Chancellor he effected a reorganisation of its academic and administrative life which put new vigour into its working.
He had many years yet of the normal span of life before him. But Destiny, who had from his birth chosen him for her own, decided otherwise. On March 12, 1941, at the zenith of his career and in the full possession of his powers, he was stricken with a cerebral haemorrhage and within a few hours he passed away.
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