Justice Couto, a judge who brought dignity to judiciary

Justice (retd) R M S Khandeparkar

Justice Gustavo Filipe Couto, an erudite, honest, hardworking and disciplinarian judge is no more. He breathed his last while undergoing old age-related treatment, last week. 

Justice Couto, who studied law at the University of Lisbon, in Portugal, had a long illustrious judicial career, beginning from Novo Redonda in Congo, and further continued it at Luanda in Angola and then in Goa.

At the time of Liberation of Goa, some of his contemporaries, occupying various important posts, chose to embrace the Portuguese nationality. However, Justice Couto, the true son of the soil, opted to be a part of the Indian judicial service, even though there was some sort of incorrectness in fixing his seniority in service, at that time. 

Justice Couto did not stop by merely studying the Indian laws but also acquainted him of Indian social scenario and the conditions, as well as the obligations of the judiciary in the prevailing circumstances in the country. That helped him to deal with the public interest litigations successfully and in the manner they were required to be considered. It is also to be noted that the public interest litigation was a totally new concept during his time.

Justice Couto perfectly familiarised himself with the agrarian and environmental statutory provisions and also various beneficial legislations.

Classic example of his thorough knowledge of such legislations is his famous decision in a Mundkarship case, where he had no hesitation in pronouncing that a person could be a Mundkar of his brother, albeit, depending upon the facts and circumstances of each case. The point to be noted is that Justice Couto hailed from a Bhatkar family.

In 1986, I was comparatively a junior advocate as compared to advocate Atul Setalvad, who was appearing for the petitioner, and myself for the respondent government, in my capacity as central government standing counsel.  The arguments went on for over four weeks but at no point of time, I had any feeling of being treated as junior lawyer by Justice Couto in comparison to advocate Setalvad.

Apart from the judicial career, Justice Couto occupied several other positions in public life.  After retirement, he was active member of executive council of the Goa University and in that capacity his contribution to the institution had been invaluable. 

He was also the chairman of the Goa Daman and Diu State Transport Authority and also the founder trustee of the International Centre of Goa.

His death is a great loss to the legal fraternity. However, one cannot fail to note with pains that his legal acumen, which could have been put to great use in the field of law in Goa, particularly, by availing his services by the government after his retirement, was unfortunately not availed of to the extent it could have been.

(The writer is the former judge of Bombay High Court)

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