About the book

"Ramnath Goenka, a freedom fighter in his own right, had been instrumental in giving credence to the Right to Speech guaranteed in the Constitution of India. Though his financial dealings were questionable, Goenka had earned a reputation for his fierce and fiery criticism of the Central Government and the all-powerful Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, in particular. His newspaper, The Indian Express, minced no words in criticizing the government policies even as the government used my independent investigation to pressurize him. To his credit, Goenka neither directly nor indirectly tried to scuttle the investigation though he was a powerful man."

"Romen Chatterjee, the ring leader, insisted that the prosecutor apologized in front of all the staff members. The prosecutor, who had scolded a staffer for violating provisions of the Companies Act 1956, was scared but did not want to apologise. While I was entering my chamber, I heard Chatterjee talking to a reporter of the Amrita Bazar Patrika. Anticipating that the matter will be blown out of the proportion, I cooked up a story. I called Chatterjee in my chamber and told him that I had asked the Commissioner of Police to take action against the erring staff and that the Commissioner had said that talking to the Press would render him liable for a disciplinary action. Not knowing that I had overheard him speak to the reporter and that the story I was telling him was all made-up, Chatterjee started sweating. I was happy that I had saved the department the embarrassment."

About the Author

P B Menon is a designated Senior Advocate of the Supreme Court of India. Born in 1920, he enrolled as an advocate in 1948 and began his practice in the Madras High Court under the guidance of V P Gopalan Nambiar, one of India’s foremost experts on Hindu Law, who became Advocate General of Kerala and thereafter retired as Chief Justice of the Kerala High Court.

Menon held several key positions in the Government of India from time to time and was instrumental in the Companies Amendment Act of 1974. He was appointed Member Company Law Board in 1971. After his retirement from the government service in 1978 as Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Law, Justice and Company Affairs, Menon resumed law practice. He appeared in a plethora of cases in a wide area of law including the Company Law, the Hindu Law and the Constitutional Law. An authority on Corporate Law, he has been on several government and other advisory bodies. He is also a nominated Arbitrator on several Arbitral Tribunals constituted under the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996.

Menon has written several articles, papers and books on corporate affairs and has given several lectures in functions organized by several national and international bodies including the Law Association for Asia and the Pacific (LAWASIA), Asia Pacific Lawyers Association, Indian Law Institute and the Administrative Staff College of India. He has also been on the Disciplinary Committee of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, Institute of Company Secretaries of India and the Institute of Cost and Works Accountants of India as a nominee of the Government of India.

A recipient of several awards, Menon was nominated as an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India in 1974 and a Member of the Administrative Reforms Commission’s Company Law Committee in 1965.