Page:Heroes of the hour- Mahatma Gandhi, Tilak Maharaj, Sir Subramanya Iyer.djvu/280

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Chapter IV

SINCE RETIREMENT

Owing to a persistent trouble in his eyes Sir Subramanya Iyer had to retire from the Bench eight months before the full period to entitle him to the maximum pension of a High Court Judge. Had he continued in service for this very short time he would not have had to forgo Rs. 5,000 per annum after nearly eleven years service on the Bench. In fact Sir Arthur Lawley felt the rigour of the technical requirement of the rules and would have cheerfully permitted Sir Subramaniem any latitude if he could have continued as a judge, doing such work as he could have done without positive injury to his eyes. His colleagues on the Bench and the Chief Justice would have suited themselves to his convenience with pleasure and with a sense of loyalty to one so uniformly esteemed by them. But Sir Subramaniem felt that he could not escape the imputation of one who stuck to an office to avoid pecuniary loss while he was not physically competent to discharge its duties. He knew that whether

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