I am also Karunanidhi
When I was Chief Justice of the Madras High Court ( 2004-2005 ) a lawyer was arguing a case before me in which there was no merit.
I kept telling the lawyer that though I sympathizsd with his client, I could do nothing for him as the law was not in his favour. When he would not listen, and kept going on and on, I got exasperated, and suddenly said ” Let me tell you a story. Once when Mr Karunanidhi was the Chief Minister of Tamilnadu, some people came to him and asked him for some money ( for some school or hospital ).
Mr Karunanidhi said ‘ Look, my name is Karunanidhi. I can give you all the karuna ( compassion ) that you want, but I have no money ‘.
Having related the story, I said to the lawyer ‘ I am also Karunanidhi. I can give you all the sympathy that you want, but I have to dismiss your case as there is no merit in it ‘,
That evening some lawyers who were present in my Court related this incident to Mr Karunanidhi, who was delighted on hearing it. He said ” Yes, this incident actually happened, but how did the Chief Justice know about it ? Does he know Tamil ? “
The lawyers could not reply. The truth was that when I was a lawyer or Judge in Allahabad High Court I had read about the incident in some English or Hindi newspaper many years ago
