Madras High Court Judge GR Swaminathan shared how a wrongful conviction changed his view on Vedas. He said, “When we protect the Vedas, the Vedas will protect us.”
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CHENNAI: Justice GR Swaminathan of the Madras High Court shared a powerful and emotional real-life story that completely changed how he looks at the Vedas.
He said,
“When we protect Vedas, it will guard those who nurture it.”
He was speaking at a national Vedic talent event organised by a trust. The video of his speech has now gone viral on social media.
Justice Swaminathan shared how a legal case connected to an old friend — a Vedic scholar — brought this realisation to him. The Vedic scholar, known as a ‘Shastri‘, is someone who deeply studies and follows the Shastras and Vedas.
The judge said the scholar was his close friend from long ago, and this incident happened when Justice Swaminathan was still a practising lawyer.
One day, the Shastri and another mutual friend came to meet him. The judge said he was shocked to hear that the Vedic scholar had been convicted and given an 18-month prison sentence for a road accident case that resulted in the death of a man. He said he couldn’t believe it at first.
Justice Swaminathan explained that the Vedic scholar’s sister had come to India from the US for a visit. She travelled with her children and her brother to various temples. She was the one driving the car. Somehow, the car lost control and hit a man standing near a tea stall, who sadly passed away.
Because the scholar’s sister had to go back to the US quickly, the Shastri took the blame on himself. He went to the police and said he was the one driving the car and had driven negligently. Based on this, a trial was held, and he was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
The judge added that in such cases, usually, the sentence is only around six months. But this Vedic scholar used to come to court wearing full traditional clothes — a dhoti, an upper cloth, and a religious tuft (called ‘kudumi’). The Shastri believed that his appearance in traditional attire led the judge to give him a harsher sentence.
Justice Swaminathan said that he looked into the case papers and found a major issue.
He said,
“When he perused case papers he found that not even one witness had identified the person who drove the vehicle. Also, none identified the Vedic scholar in the court. There was no witness against the scholar.”
Justice Swaminathan said he took up the case as a lawyer and appealed the verdict. He explained,
“We took up this single point and argued in the appeal court,”
and added that it was the scholar’s good luck that the judge who heard the appeal was his classmate.
The result was that the Vedic scholar was completely acquitted because there was absolutely no evidence against him.
Justice Swaminathan said,
“That day I realised that when we protect Vedas, Vedas will protect us and I realised it. Till then, I did not have a keen interest in such matters. Think, at least one witness could have said that Shastri drove the car. Not even one said that.” He further recalled, “All the eight witness said the car ran amok, hit the man and he died.”
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