Professor Mahendra Pal Singh often referred to simply as Prof. M. P. Singh, one of the most renowned scholars of constitutional law, and giant in legal education, is being lamented by the legal fraternity world over. The great soul of the late Vice-Chancellor of The West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences (NUJS), Kolkata and former Professor and Dean at the Faculty of Law, University of Delhi passed away in this morning leaving behind his rich scholarly legacy, teachings, and institutional leadership.
Prof. M. P. Singh was widely thought to be one of the greatest masters of constitutional and administrative law in India. Throughout the decades, he had taught and written on generations of law students, scholars and judges. His work served as an eye-opener to most young lawyers and made them appreciate more about the Indian Constitution and how law is used to build a fair society. Particularly popular among law students was Mahendra Pal Singh, who made a contribution on the widely read constitutional law text, V.N. Shukla, the Constitution of India, which is still a standard reference among lawyers and scholars in the country.
Prof. Singh was a person who occupied a number of significant posts throughout his academic career. He was a Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Delhi where he made a significant contribution to the development of legal research and academic discussion. His classrooms were characterized by serious arguments on constitutional values, comparative law, and human rights. He was remembered by the students as a forbearing teacher who was able to think and ask questions.
Prof. Singh assumed the position of the Vice-Chancellor of the National University of Juridical Sciences in Kolkata in December 2006. His tenure which lasted up to 2011 is recalled as one of the significant stages in the development of the university. He worked on this period to enhance academic standards, promote research and recruit good faculty members to the institution. Programs like the NUJS Law Review were also well publicized in his tenure and the university was further established as one of the best law schools in India.
Besides his administration work, Prof. Singh was also very active in the academic writing and international scholarship. He is a visiting professor in various universities worldwide and among them are those in Germany, Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan. His works included constitutional law, administrative law, human rights, comparative law, and law and social justice. He wrote and edited a number of books and research over the years which influenced the debates regarding the interpretation of the Indian constitution and governance.
His colleagues and past students frequently referred to the fact that he was a gentle and considerate scholar who held that law had to serve society and that it had to guard the dignity of people. His writings covered many subjects of social inequality and the necessity to discuss the constitutional rights interpretation in accordance with the social reality of India.
He got various honours in his lifetime in appreciation of his contribution to legal education that was immense. He was often invited to academic institutions to discuss the constitutional law and give lectures on it. A special colloquium was held in honour of his 75th year, with scholars and former students as the participants.
The demise of Prof. M. P. Singh signifies the death of an era in the Indian legal world of study. To thousands of students and scholars he was not only a teacher, he was a light of guidance and inspiration in their minds, making them think a lot about law, justice and the Constitution.
His life works will be remembered and celebrated as long as the legal community remembers and honors him as a man of letters, his students, and the institutions which he contributed to found. He is being memorialized in the Indian legal fraternity with great respect and gratitude due to his lifetime of studying and teaching law.
