Le Matinal: Blog: Rajsoomer Lallah - In Presence of a Luminary’s Absence

Blog: Rajsoomer Lallah - In Presence of a Luminary’s Absence
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J. Manrakhan (Guest Author) on Saturday 9th of June 2012 - 12:19:00
 
He had a vast, rich experience in the Human Rights’ field: at the Commonwealth
Secretariat (1970 - 75); the Commission of Jurists, Geneva (1988 - 98); the
International Labour Office (re South Africa, 1991 - 92; Nigeria, 1998) and
above all, as a long-standing member of the United Nations (UNHRC), notably in
connection with Chile (1983 - 84), Myanmar (1998 - 2000) and Cambodia (1998) -
with reports which earned news headlines, world-wide; besides helping on a
Post-Apartheid Constitution for South Africa in the early 1990s.
Following studies at the Royal College Curepipe, he read Jurisprudence as an
Anderson Scholar at Balliol, Oxford (1954- 57), before proceeding to the Middle
Temple, London, to become a Barrister-at-Law in 1958. After a brief stay
essentially in private practice at the Mauritian bar, Soomer joined the State
Law Office (1964 - 70) and also, notably, served at the Electoral
Commissioners’ Office, as Mauritius steamed ahead towards independence in
1968.
After a spell as Special Adviser at the Commonwealth Secretariat (1970-75):
where he provided legal advice on resource development, taxation, and on
constitutional matters, as well as negotiations, for independence or with
multinationals. Soomer returned to Mauritius to become Assistant Solicitor
General (1976 - 78), Parliamentary Counsel (1978 - 80), Judge and then Senior
Puisne Judge at the Supreme Court (1980 -93) and retired as Chief Justice in
1995.
Both at the Commonwealth Secretariat, and the Solicitor General’s Office in
Mauritius, Rajsoomer Lallah was in constant demand for a whole array of advice
concerning the needs of the Government and those of a growing number of
parapublic agencies and enterprises, especially those with international
connections with, say, the African Development Bank, the World Bank and the
International Monetary Fund - thus, the Bank of Mauritius, the Central
Electricity Board and Air Mauritius. He was among a rare group of Mauritians who
played prominent roles therein, often continuing well after official retirement.
While serving as Pro Chancellor and Chairman of the University Council at
Réduit, 1977-80, he made the case for the setting up of a School of Law at the
High Powered Review Committee, December 1979 meant to cater for the medium and
longer term, and chaired by Mr. B. Ghoorah, Secretary to the Cabinet.
More generally, he was to take on board two major potentially-debilitating
crises during his tenure at Réduit. The first related to whether the University
staff would be allowed to stand as candidates for the forthcoming general
elections of 1976. ‘No!’, decided rather belatedly, the Council as employer,
and ran straight into an ‘ultra-vires’ visitorial judgement by Mr. Justice
(later Sir Victor) Glover, 1977: essentially, the Council had not consulted the
Senate, the University’s main academic authority. Thereafter, with sound and
fury fast abating, the Council extended those very political rights up to, and
including, the 1982 and 1983 General Elections, only for those to be removed in
the wake of Pay Research Bureau and the Chesworth Commission reports, 1987-89.
Where matters now rest.
The second potential crisis related to student unrest, 1979, which led to the
temporary closing down of the Réduit Campus, prior to a carefully calculated
set of efforts to reopen the campus, without police presence. There were three
interrelated questions necessitating swift answers.
Was the University of Mauritius worth saving at all?
Was the Vice-Chancellor empowered to close down the Reduit campus, even
temporarily?
Should a Visitor be appointed to examine the closure, and reopening of the
Reduit Campus? (In the event, Mr. (later Sir Marc) David, a distinguished
lawyer, who had served previously on the Provisional Council at Réduit was
appointed as Visitor and reparted in 1980).
In the background were more questions (and speculations), not least the
contention that the Cabinet appeared in majority to be in favour of an outright
permanent closure of the campus: who would want a ‘lingering death’? On the
other hand, the (then) Prime Minister appeared to have opted to retain faith and
trust with the University’s Act and Statutes, Senate and Council, Pro
Chancellor and all.
In all of this, Rajsoomer Lallah, who had rushed back from a New York UN
meeting, went about, cool, calm and decisive: a line-by-line, clause-by-clause
examination of the University Act and Statutes, the Constitution of Mauritius,
and of the ubiquitous Interpretation and General Clauses’ Act, decision -
minutes of Council, Senate and School Boards, amongst others, all came into
play. Then the answers thundered down: Yes!, Yes!, Yes! Not easily; not without
passionate discussions, intensive cross examinations and lengthy phone calls.
And, above all, - eventually - with enough hope for the future, within the
Mauritius 2000 Framework (dubbed MAD 2000 by some campus cynics!) And, not least
with the appointment by the Prime Minister in May 1979 of an Ad hoc Committee of
Government and University Officials and of Student’s Union representatives to
look into employment prospects of Réduit awardees; the committee being chaired
by Mr. D. Heeralall, Establishment Secretary.
Picture to yourself, the recurrent scenery: moving deep into each possibility;
checking as best you can, possibilities, then probabilities; down, ever down:
you miss a few; never mind, there will be the return journey soon, touch the
bottom; now move up, zoom on previous misses.  Move up, up, up. Got it? No? Try
again. Again. And again? Yes! But more also: no recrimination, no retaliation -
in short, an honorable paix des braves! Enough to convince the Government as
Paymaster General? Yes, at least in the immediate, for 2 or 3 years with swift
cutbacks on courses and a gradual resumption of studies on the courses with a
more assured future. Years later a Commonwealth Higher Education delegation was
to insist on visiting the University of Mauritius to gather first-hand
experience of ‘pruning-and-rebudding of new growths’, unusual in University
contexts generally: another unsung prowess of the Réduit campus!
Away from there Soomer was to chair the Commission on the Review of Legal
Studies, leading to academic studies at the Réduit campus, and of professional
Legal Studies at the Council of Legal Education, initially under the aegis of
the Supreme Court.
Of course, the latter itself has, inevitably, been a major focus of his
professional attention, having to hear and, pronounce upon, a vast array of
important cases, subject to appeal, at that Court or at the Privy Council - not
to mention the heavy burden that the Office of Chief Justice itself entails.
In one of his historic judgements, he gave special meaning to the term
‘colourable device’. On the other hand, in his Commission of Enquiry report
on Electoral Practices in connection with the 1982 General Elections, he went
deep into the twilight zone twixt the duties and responsibilities of the State
and those of political parties entrusted with the governance of the country: his
outward journey to an overseas conference spent writing up his Commission report
read one way - which he felt to be less than fair all round; he changed paradigm
on the return journey to achieve more fairness. And the rest is history.
And yet for any individual to indulge in such paradigm-shifts is most uncommon -
which you can discover by reading any text on the philosophy or history of
science. Rajsoomer Lallah has had that rare knack of paradigm-shifting that few
others have possessed.
One can almost hear the poet - philosopher - artist, Kahlil Gibran (1883 - 1931)
here:
Oh seekers I am Truth, beseeching Truth;
And your Truth in seeking and receiving
And protecting me shall determine my
Behavior.
Now, in presence of his absence, we, friends and family, Country and Profession,
slowly and painfully, attempting to gauge the extent of our loss, deprived by a
quirk of fate, from the full extent of his ‘promises to keep’ à la Robert
Frost (1874 - 1963), we wish and trust that such intellectual heritage be not
allowed to simply wither away.
Si, - l’Oeuvre doit perdurer!
Ad honores.