TRIBUTE TO DR. N. NARAYANAN NAIR on Apr 29, 2021 at 05:00 PM

A PROTAGONIST EXCEPTIONALLY EXCELLENT

Dr. N. Narayanan Nair was born in a wealthy family in 1927 at Koliyakode, a rural village near Venjaramoodu in Thiruvananthapuram District. He completed the Intermediate Course from the University College, Thiruvananthapuram and also did  B.Sc. in Pure Mathematics from the  same college. Thereafter, he joined the Government Law College, Ernakulam and passed LL.B. in the year 1953 and enrolled as Advocate in the year 1954. He started his legal practice as Junior to Late Advocate Krishnaswamy Iyyangar (who is the father of Justice Paripoornan). Dr. Narayanan Nair completed his LL. M. in the year 1955 with first rank from the Kerala University and he obtained his Ph.D. in Law from the Kerala University in 1968 which was the first Ph. D. in law awarded by the Kerala University. 

He was an active member of the undivided Communist Party holding position of District Executive Committee member of Trivandrum District of the undivided Communist Party and continued with CPI after the split and was member of the State Council of CPI for a long period. He also served as a lecturer at the Government Law College, Trivandrum. During this period he had worked as Election Committee Secretary in the Legislative Assembly election in one of the legislative assemblies in Kerala. For this reason he was terminated from service from the Government Law College, Trivandrum which was within one year of his appointment. He challenged his termination before the High Court of Kerala and the High Court decided in his favour by striking down his termination. But he did not rejoin the Law College as Lecturer and the rest is history of legal education in Kerala and the birth of one of the novel institutions in the field of legal education, the Kerala Law Academy.

The Kerala Law Academy was formed in 1966 by Dr. Narayanan Nair along with Justice V. R. Krishna Iyer, Justice Subramanian Potti, former Education Minister K. Chandrasekharan, Senior Advocate S Narayanan Potti, Advocate Kalathil Velayudhan Nair, Senior Advocate S Eswara Iyer, Former Advocate General M M Abdul Khader, Justice Sivaraman Nair and others. Kerala Law Academy Law College was started in the year 1967 and Dr. Narayanan Nair was the Founder Secretary of Kerala Law Academy. Later, Kerala Law Academy started a research Centre at Punnen Road, Trivandrum, near Government Secretariat, in the year 1974 and the said research institute had produced several PhDs. 

Earlier Dr Nair Narayanan Nair had worked as the Secretary of All India Peace and Solidarity Organization and leader of India – Soviet Cultural Society and in those positions, he had visited Soviet Union twice and Stockholm in Sweden and several other East Europian countries. He also visited Birmingham in United Kingdom to attend the International Conference on Legal History as a prominent invited Speaker in the Conference.  

Dr. Narayanan Nair was elected to the Kerala University Syndicate 5 times and was a member of the Kerala University Syndicate for a period of nearly 24 years, which is the longest period a person is holding the post of member of the Syndicate of the University of Kerala. He has also been member of the Senate of the University of Kerala since 1963, viz. he has been a Senate Member of the Kerala University continuously without a break for nearly 50 years, which is a record period for a person occupying that position in any university in India.

He has been a member of the Faculty, Academic Council and Board of Studies of several Universities and has been a question paper setter for the Union Public Service Commission Examinations and valuer/examiner for grant of PhD in law in several Universities. He was also member of selection Committee for selection of the Vice Chancellor of Universities on five occasions (for selection of Vice Chancellor of Kerala University on two occasions and of NUALS on three occasions).

He was a member of the Bar Council of Kerala continuously since 1990 till 2016 and has been instrumental in transforming the Council to its present shape and has served as the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Bar Council of Kerala for more than 15 years. Shri Narayanan Nair, as Managing Trustee of Bar Council of Kerala Trust took the lead role in creating NIALS (National Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, Kochi), established by the Bar Council of Kerala Trust in 2002 and played a pivotal role in transforming NIALS into NUALS (National University of Advanced Legal Studies, Kochi), the premier National Law University in Kochi in 2005. He also served as Vice-Chancellor of NUALS from 01.06.2007 to 31.12.2008 (19 months) during which period he signed the first degree certificates issued by NUALS. He played the crucial role in planning and developing the present day campus and buildings of NUALS and he continued as Member of Executive Committee of NUALS right from the formation of NUALS till his death.

Dr. Shri  N Narayanan Nair is survived by his three children, Raj Narayanan, Lakshmi Nair (cookery expert and former Principal, KLA and presently Research Director, CALSAR), and Nagaraj Narayanan (Advocate, Kerala High Court and member, Bar Council of Kerala). His wife, Ponnamma, a former Indian Audit and Accounts Service official, who retired as Deputy Account Genera, AG’s Office and Finance Officer and Chief Accounts Officer, KSRTC, had predeceased him.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89925726565?pwd=VWNFalMyb0FNcHUwbG9wbXgrQ0c4UT09

Meeting ID: 899 2572 6565
Passcode: 680488