Click here if you would like to Contribute or send a feedback.  Addoor Venkat Rao is born in Tanjore in 1926. He studied in Chennai from 1933 to 1940. He continued his further studies in Mangalore from 1940 47. He completed his BL (Bachelor of Law) in Chennai in the year 1949 and practiced as an advocate till 1954.
He entered into Sub Ordinate judiciary in 1954 and later became Civil Judge in the year 1970. He became as the District Judge in 1974. He worked as a District Judge in Kolar, Mercara and Mysore. Then he was posted as a Law Secretary to the Government of Karnataka in the same year.He retired as Law Secretary in November 1981. Afterwards he worked as a Special Officer in Corporation Bank in 1983 84 and became a member of the Legal Aid Board, Karnataka for three terms. He also became a Director of Karnataka Bank from 1984 92. Now, he is functioning as a Legal Adviser to the University of Mysore from 1983. For the sake of knowledge of our viewers we are very glad to regularly publish articles written by such an experienced and learned judicial personality. Confession of a Milk Vendor
 The person who claimed to be an eyewitness to the incident was the one who was regularly supplying milk to us. He entered the witness box and deposed that he had seen the accused standing on the outer edge of the compound and setting fire to the haystack inside the compound by holding a long pole lit with fire at the other end. Read On Conferment of power only to discharge one’s duty
A judge, who awarded a stiff sentence of imprisonment to an accused, who killed another person, who was having sex with his (accused’s) wife. After a few days, the judge suffered severe headache in court and hence returned to his house, only to find his (judge’s) wife having sex with her paramour. The judge felt intense urge to kill that person, but controlled his temper Read On Law and Justice
The Prosecution version was that the accused was holding a coconut in his hands, with a half blade fixed to the left of the coconut and by making a vertical movement of the coconut, the blade cut the terrylin shirt pocket of another pilgrim in the crowd and that a small girl accompanying the accused picked up the cash, that had fallen to the ground from the torn shirt pocket and handed over to the accused. Read On Good luck – The Main Key to Success!
On attending the Rent Control Court, I came to know that the Presiding Officer (Sub – Collector) was a very kind and sympathetic person, who was about to retire. Since the earlier order of the Rent Controller to restore the amenity had become final one to dismissal of the appeal, I had no case to argue. I could only try to draw the sympathy of the Presiding Officer. Read On Appearance as accused in court – Blur on the family
One or two years later, a young man belonging to a very respectable and well to do family became a member. Even though he was a good man, he was totally addicted to drink and he used to drink liquor both during day and night. He used to come to the tennis court also with a quarter bottle of whisky and sometimes used to be drunk also. This caused much embarrassment to all the members and particularly to me and the Sub – Inspector of Police. Read On Training for magistrates
One day, he inspected a police station along with us. We found one person with his hands and legs tied to a chair and a mud pot hanging over his head, with drops of water dripping drop by drop on his head. The Superintendent told us that the said man, who was so tied up was supposed to be absconding and that he was being well fed but not allowed to sleep, in order to make him come out with truth. Read On Literacy and Wisdom
On opening the packet, I found that besides two bottles of honey, there were four silver tumblers and a silver kumkuma karadige. I was in a fix to accept the silver articles or not. I had already handed over charge and I could have no more official dealings with any lawyer at Puttur. So, I thought in the first instance that I would not be doing any wrong in accepting the gift. Read On The Witty Patel
I happened to meet a Patel (Village Head) of a village, who was highly respected in the village. During the course of conversation with him, he claimed that all disputes used to be settled in the village itself before the village elders and that it was the prestige of the village to see that no case goes to Court or Police from his village. I then asked him as to what he would do if there was any murder committed in his village? Read On When you are at a dead end, surrender unto God!
There was one Assistant Engineer (Present designation A.E.E) in the P. W. D. at Belthangady, who was very honest and hard working. One day, he noticed freshly cut branches of trees piled up in the compound of a hotel in Belthangady and on making enquiries with the hotel keeper, came to know that they were branches of road side trees sold to him as firewood by the P.W.D. supervisor. Read On Was it right or wrong?
When the said case was pending against them in my court, one of the accused, who was one of the leaders of the said Raitha Sangha, came to my home and pressed the door bell. On opening the door, I got terribly upset seeing that accused for having dared to approach me and without even asking him as to why he had come, I shouted at him and threatened to call the Police if he did not go away from there immediately. Naturally, he went away. Read On Common man and Law
After hearing both sides and enquiring with the witnesses, who had also assembled there, he drew some analogy from some episode in Ramayana and Mahabharatha and gave his verdict. Majority of Villagers, who had assembled there were also familiar with Ramayana and Mahabharatha and accepted the verdict as well as the reasons on which such verdict was based.Read On The Unanswerable Question
He then remarked that the law is the same for both rich and poor and if the Patel could be released on bail it would be against law to refuse bail to him. I then lost patience and angrily told him "¸ÁPÉÆà ¤£Àß PÁ£ÀÆ£ÀÄ ¤£ÀߣÀÄß ¨ÉÊ¯ï ªÉÄÃ¯É ©qÀ®Ä DUÀĪÀÅ¢®è"I was however totally floored when he asked....."PÉÆÃmïð£À°è PÁ£ÀÆ£ÀÄ ªÀiÁvÁqÀzÉà ¨ÉÃgÉ J°è ¸Ágï PÁ£ÀÆ£ÀÄ ªÀiÁvÁqÀ¨ÉÃPÀÄ?"Read On Blessings in disguise!
I then suddenly realized that I had committed a blunder, since the law prohibits sending a child below 15 years to a jail. I fervently hoped that someone would turn up and pay the fine, but no one came to pay the fine till 1.00 PM. In order to save my own skin, I then paid the fine from my pocket and allowed the boy to go away. I never imagined that my said action would become the talk of the town.Read On We the Society and the Criminals!
The said accused was produced before me about six months after I assumed charge as Magistrate at Kundapur. In all the ten cases filed against him, he pleaded not guilty to the charges framed against him, because by pleading not guilty to the charges, he could spend some time as under trial prisoner, without any hard labour. If he had pleaded guilty, he would be a convicted prisoner subject to hard labour.Read On You can not have dignity at the cost of integrity
In 1974, I was promoted as a District Judge and was posted as a District Judge, Kolar.After taking charge, I called on Honorable Narayan Pai, who was Chief Justice. During the course of conversation, he asked me if I was maintaining a car. I replied that it was not possible to maintain any car with a salary, which I was getting. He then observed, "It is right. You can not have dignity at the cost of integrity".Read On An honoured ticketless passenger
In 1962, after assuming charge at Kollegal, I wanted to go over to Mysore and pay my respects to the District Judge. I instructed my peon Ranga to buy a ticket and sit in the bus, till I went there a few minutes before the departure time. When I so went and occupied my seat in the bus, there was some whispering and one person came to me and requested me to return the ticket saying he cannot take any fare from me. Read On Who will wear those sarees now?
Nothing was heard of for some time, till a summons was received from the Magistrate court calling upon my wife to attend the court and depose as a witness. With great distress, she attended the court and also deposed as a witness. The sarees, which had been wrapped in a piece of paper and which were totally soiled were shown to her and she identified the same as her sarees that were stolen. Read On Click here if you would like to Contribute or send a feedback. | 
