Rajendra Babu

34th Chief Justice of India

Born: 1st July 1939, Bangalore (Mysore State, now Karnataka)

In April 2004, my lawyer friend Poonacha was all excited. He was going to be attending the swearing-in ceremony of the Chief Justice of India. His colleague at work, Sukruta's dad was the new CJI! Rajendra Babu is on record, the shortest serving CJI with a term of about 2 months May 2 - Jun 30 2004. He retired on his 65th birthday.

I met CJ Rajendra Babu and his gracious wife Asha at their residence in Wilson Garden, Bangalore during one of my home-visit holidays. Sukruta had very kindly fixed the appointment for me. It was meant to be about a half-hour meeting but we ended up talking for almost two hours.

The former CJI was curious about my autograpph-collecting hobby. He said that no one had ever visited him for his autograph. When I told him of my website, he was quick to check on his ipad that is always at hand.

He had innumerable stories to tell, of his college days, visits to Koshy's on St. Mark's Road, his teaching experiences at the law school that he still visits, traffic, and also about the lakes of Bangalore in which I have a special interest.

I had taken prints of pictures downloaded from the internet, that I requested him to sign. When he first spelt my name wrong, he was particular about correcting it. Got Mrs Babu to sign one too.

Signed 26th May 2016