Schooled by my surroundings

Just the other day I was reading Sir William Wade’s treatise on administrative law. The opening paragraph gives a graphic account of the external or ‘visible signs’ of the presence of the government in London in 1914, beyond the post office and the police station.

That took me back in time to the Sandur of the 1960s and 1970s, where I was born, brought up and educated till PUC.

Until the early 1970s Sandur was not well connected with the rest of the state. One had to first go to Hospet or Ballari for an onwards journey. Even to these two places, public transport was just so-so.

The buses were old and rickety; they were operated by private operators. Being born in a small town had its own rewards. I could witness the emergence of certain instrumentalities of the government which could advance economic development and contribute to the growth of our administrative law. 

Back then, the Mysore State Road Transport Corporation Ltd (later KSRTC) began to operate its buses. These buses were brand new. The drivers and conductors looked smart in their new khaki uniforms. One Saturday morning I travelled to Ballari by one of those buses. 

I secured a window seat. The conductor came to my father to collect the fare and issued him some tiny slips of paper, which he secured in his wallet. Inquisitive as I was, I asked him what those paper slips were. “Tickets”, he answered and explained their significance.

Some half an hour into the journey, as the bus was meandering along a rough stretch of muddy road on its way out of the Sandur valley, it was stopped by an MSRTC official: burly, with a thick moustache and bulging eyes.

The moment he stepped onto the bus, he began to show off his authority: he upbraided the driver, scolded the conductor and fined two passengers for some fault. After some time, the bus moved. Upon my query, my father explained that he was an inspector with certain powers for which he was obviously held in awe.

Many years later, I learnt that exercise or non-exercise of power by officials, abuse of power by them and how courts rein in any abuse of power all formed the core of administrative law. 

Sandur being a mining town, the National Mineral Development Corporation set up its office there in around the early 1970s. Its signboards and vehicles bore the words ‘A Govt of India Undertaking’. What did that mean? Again, my father satisfied my curiosity.

My father’s employers in those days were mine owners and mineral ‘exporters’. Exporters? I looked up to my father. He also explained another related word, ‘importers’.

Trucks carrying iron ore and manganese had the words ‘Private Carrier’ or ‘Public Carrier’ written on the panels above the windscreens. Again, my father tirelessly answered my queries.

This informal learning gave me a head start when I took up the study and practice of law.

Like John Keats’ Meg Merrilies, I was schooled by my surroundings.

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.