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Chief Justice of India Surya Kanton Saturday conferred the second Professor (Dr.) N.R. Madhava Menon Memorial ‘Tribute of Honour’ Award on Attorney General for India R Venkataramaniat a ceremony held in Ernakulam, Kerala.
In his address, the CJI highlighted the enduring legacy of Professor N.R. Madhava Menon, widely regarded as the father of modern legal education in India, and described Venkataramani as a student who had carried forward his mentor’s values throughout a distinguished career spanning nearly five decades at the Bar.
“There is a symmetry to this occasion that few gatherings can claim,” the CJI said, recalling how Menon and Venkataramani’s paths crossed at the Government Law College in Pondicherry in 1974.
“It is as though a circle, which was set in motion nearly five decades ago in a small law college on the Coromandel coast, has at last come home to this High Court, and closed, most fittingly, upon the highest law officer of the Republic,” he added.
Venkataramani, a physics graduate, joined the Government Law College in Pondicherry in 1974. Menon joined the institution as its Principal later that year, laying the foundation for a teacher-student relationship that would shape the Attorney General’s understanding of law and justice.
The CJI recalled Venkataramani’s own account of how his mentor’s teachings resonated with his desire to understand the purposes of law and justice, with the college library serving as his second classroom.
“That bond did not end at the college gates as Dr. Venkataramani carried his teacher’s conscience to the Supreme Court of India,” the CJI said.
He noted that Venkataramani had argued matters across diverse areas of law, including constitutional law, environmental law, taxation, tribal rights, and the rights of women and children.
Describing Venkataramani’s tenure as Attorney General, the CJI said he discharged the responsibility of being the Union government’s chief legal adviser with a temperament characterised by measured judgment, principled conduct and courtesy.
“These are qualities that no office can confer, and that only a lifetime of learning can refine,” he said.
In his acceptance address, Attorney General R. Venkataramani recalled his close association with Professor Menon and the profound influence the teacher had on his legal education and professional journey.
Describing the occasion as deeply personal, Venkataramani said Menon’s contributions to legal education in India and abroad, as well as his role in transforming the country’s justice delivery system, would remain part of history.
Expressing gratitude to his mentor, the Attorney General said he felt Menon’s presence as he received the award.
The CJI paid tribute to Professor Menon’s transformative contribution to legal education, particularly his role in establishing institutions that reshaped the training of lawyers and judges in India.
The CJI credited Menon with conceiving the five-year integrated LL.B. programme, an innovation that brought greater intellectual rigour to legal education.
The CJI said these institutions reflected Menon’s conviction that legal education should serve as an instrument of social transformation rather than merely provide a qualification to practise law.
He also highlighted Menon’s emphasis on legal aid clinics and curricula that placed the poor and marginalised at the centre of legal training.
