Chief Justice of India B.R. Gavai’s calm reaction in court this week, after an object was hurled toward him, has drawn parallels with another historic display of composure inside the Supreme Court—one that took place more than five decades ago.
Back on March 13, 1968, then Chief Justice of India M. Hidayatullah had faced a far graver situation inside the same courtroom. As a Bench headed by him was delivering a civil appeal judgment, a man forced his way through the crowd, brandishing a knife. The intruder climbed onto the court master’s table and lunged toward Justice A.N. Grover.
Justice Hidayatullah, showing remarkable presence of mind, grabbed a heavy inkstand, ready to defend himself and his fellow judges. When the attacker managed to strike Justice Grover on the head, the Chief Justice dropped the inkstand and wrestled the man to the ground. An assistant librarian rushed in to help restrain the attacker while Justice Vaidialingam, the third judge on the Bench, tried to push the man off the table.
In his memoir My Own Boswell, Justice Hidayatullah recalled how he managed to twist the knife into the thick courtroom carpet until it was buried safely, preventing further harm. Once the police subdued the assailant, the Chief Justice asked officers not to manhandle him. “He looked strangely at me with softness in his eyes,” Hidayatullah later wrote, describing the attacker’s sudden calm.
Justice Grover, who had suffered a scalp injury, was immediately taken to Wellington Hospital by Chief Justice Hidayatullah and Justice Vaidialingam.
Reports at the time identified the attacker as Manmohan Das from West Bengal’s Mushirabad district, described as “half mad” by police sources.
More than half a century later, CJI B.R. Gavai’s composed demeanor in a tense courtroom moment—urging lawyers to continue proceedings after being targeted—echoes the same steadiness and restraint once shown by his predecessor. Both moments stand as rare reminders of courage and leadership under pressure, right from the nation’s highest court.
