A Brief biography of Justice Radhabinod Pal

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A famous jurist, he was born on 27 January 1886 in a small village of Shalimpur, presently in Kushtia district of Bangladesh, to Bipin Behari Pal (father) and Magnomoyee Pal (mother).  He became a member of the United Nations' International Law Commission (1952 to 1966) and was appointed to the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, the "Tokyo Trials" of Japanese war crimes committed during the Second World War. Two Asian judges were appointed and Judge Pal was one of them. Among the 14 judges of the tribunal, he was the one whose judgement differed from others, he in his judgement contended that all defendants were not guilty. Shrines were erected at two major cities in Japan, at Tokyo, the Yasukuni shrine and at Kyoto the Ryozen Gokoku Shrine have monuments specially devoted to Judge Pal. A museum called Pal-Shimonaka was set up in his memory at Hakone,

His childhood days were financially difficult, but his mother’s blessings and encouragement helped him to overcome all hurdles in life. He was a student of mathematics at Presidency College, Calcutta and subsequently studied constitutional law at the Law College, University of Calcutta, where he became a professor in 1923. He had enormous contributions in the Indian Income Tax Act of 1922 and was hired as a legal expert by the British Government in 1927. He was appointed as a judge of the Calcutta High Court in1 1941 and in 1944 became the Vice-Chancellor of Calcutta University. In 1946, he represented India as a member of the tribunal of judges at the Tokyo Trials. Judge Pal’s judgement differed from the Tribunal’s verdicts and his dissenting judgement influenced the judges from Netherlands and France.      

He got married to Smt Nalini Bala Pal in 1907, whose influence in his career in later days needs to be acknowledged. He had deep respects for his wife. Judge Pal was blessed with 14 children, nine daughters (Shanti Rani, Asha Rani, Leela Rani, Bela Rani, Nilima, Roma Rani, Renu Kana, Lakshmi Rani and Smriti Kana) and five sons (Prasanta Kumar, Pradyot Kumar, Pronab Kumar, Pratip Bijoy and Pratul Kumar). He had a loving personality and his love towards all his children and grand-children needs mentioning. One son, Pronab Kumar Pal, also became a lawyer (a barrister), as did his two sons-in-law, Balai Lal Pal (with whom he co-authored a book ) and Debi Prasad Pal (who also served as a judge of the Calcutta High Court and Indian Minister of State for Finance).