Part-IV

Mr. Raj Kumar Aggarwal father of Kapil Dev Aggarwal; 

A.     Early life and education;

Mr. Raj Kumar Aggarwal is 6^th child and eldest son of Mrs. Lajwanti Aggarwal and Lala Mela Ram Aggarwal. Mr. Raj Kumar Aggarwal was born on 18^th April, 1924 at family home at B-8, Mochpura Road, (Mochpura bazaar) Ludhiana. He was educated from Arya School Ludhiana until 5^th standard. Later the family moved to Lahore in 1935. In Lahore the family took on rent a villa measuring 80,000 sq feet; 6, Muzang Road, Labore. The Villa was taken at then monthly rental of Rs 250/- in the year 1935. Mr. Raj Kumar Aggarwal completed his school education in year 1940 i.e. 10th standard from DAV School, Lahore. He did F.A. (1942) and B.A. (1944) from DAV College Lahore in Political Science and Economics. Mr. Raj Kumar Aggarwal completed his law from Law College Lahore in the year 1947. After partition of the Country, he started his practice in the year 1947 in the High Court of Punjab (post partition east Punjab) which at that time started functioning from Peteroff at Shimla.

B.     Marriage;

Mr. Raj Kumar Aggarwal married Sushila Devi daughter of Mrs. Budhan Devi and Mr. Girdhari Lal Banker S/O Mr. Ram Rattan Banker S/O Lala Rura Mal Banker. He was married on September 1, 1954 at Ludhiana. The reception was held two days later at Hotel Cecil, Shimla. He has two children daughter Renu born on September 6^th 1955 and son Kapil Dev Aggarwal born September 29^th, 1967. Daughter Renu is married to Mr. Nalin Kumar S/O Mr. L C Gupta and Mrs. on 18^th June 1983. They have one son Ravi Gupta born on 16^th April 1984 at Chandigarh. Sushila Devi died peacefully in her sleep on September 5^th 2005.

C.     Professional life;

Mr. Raj Kumar Aggarwal began his professional life in the year 1947 as pleader (as per rules in that period a person was required to act as pleader for two years before they were permitted to argue cases in High Court). Below is the picture of 1st office (1948) of Mr. Raj Kumar Aggarwal as seen today.

Hydeville, Annadale Road Shimla.

He joined as pleader with Mr. Thakur Dass advocate, (Thakur Dass F/O Ishwar Dass, Chabil Dass & Shiela) who was practicing in lower courts. After two years he joined Mr. D K Mahajan advocate as his junior and worked with him till the elevation of Mr. D K Mahajan as Judge of High Court in 1957. Thereafter Mr. Raj Kumar Aggarwal joined Mr. P C Pandit advocate, as his junior and worked with him as such till the elevation of Mr. P C Pandit as Judge of High Court on 4^th March 1960. Mr. Raj Kumar then joined Mr. B R Tuli, Advocate till Mr. B R Tuli was elevated as Judge of High Court on 28^th May 1968.

Mr. Raj Kumar Aggarwal in his independent practice became advisor to New Bank of India Ltd, then a private Bank in 1964 and remained as its retainer till New Bank of India was merged in Punjab National Bank in 1993. He also became retainer to central Bank of India in 1968 and remained as its retainer till Central Bank of India employed its full time law officers in 1982. He is dealt with education matters and worked for Punjab University since 1964; He was proficient in real estate matters worked for Improvement Trust Ludhiana since 1970 apart from several private land related disputes from villages in and around Ludhiana.

Most of his class fellows choose to become Judges of High Court. To name a few Surinder Singh, RN Mittal, SC Mittal, RN Aggarwal, MS Gujral and Jagmohan Tandon, other class fellows were Amar Chand, F/O Kapil Sood, Mast Ram Gupta, F/O Deepak Gupta, Kailash Sood F/O Ajay Kumar Sood. Ram Nath Vaid F/O Manmohan Vaid and Vipin Vaid.

Chief Justice D K Mahajan and later Chief Justice R S Narula wanted Mr. Raj Kumar Aggarwal to also become Judge of High Court. Mr. Raj Kumar Aggarwal declined by saying; “Why you want to retire me 20 years earlier. Pension won’t be sufficient for me to maintain my family including my extended family/ relatives who are dependent upon me.”

D.      Family;

Mr. Raj Kumar Aggarwal had six sisters and 2 brothers. The names of the sisters are Prakash, Shakuntla, Lakshmi, Raj Kumari, Padma and Satya. The names of his brothers are Rajinder Aggarwal and Rajeshwar Aggarwal.

He had five brother-in-laws. Mr. Harprakash, Mr. Vedprakash, Mr. Ramprakash, Mr. Gopal Krishan Banker and Mr. Kewal Krishan Banker. He had two sisters-in-law namely Mrs. Lajwanti Garg and Mrs. Santosh.

Having such a huge family kept him mostly busy in looking after not so fortunate ones in the family.

i)      Most of his life was spent in settling the children of one of his sister-in-law (wife’s sister) who left her husband and was living independently with her five children.

a)     Her eldest daughter was in government service, where transfer and postings are most important factors and determine your future life. Most of the time Mr. Raj Kumar Aggarwal was kept busy in her transfer and postings. All her connections are because of plum postings, she got through the help of Raj Kumar Aggarwal.

B)     Mr. Raj Kumar Aggarwal helped her 2^nd daughter in getting;-

I)      A teaching job,

II)     Admission in University hostel without being a student under discretionary quota of chancellor.

III)   Going to Delhi for her admission in a Training institute.

IV)    Appearing as a witness in court cases to enable them get money from their estranged father.

(This daughter got dentures and assisted in cataract operation of Mr. Raj Kumar Aggarwal).

C)     Her eldest son could not afford to live independently after he got a government job. So he was given food, accommodation by Mr. Raj Kumar Aggarwal at his home.

D)     Youngest son got admission in NDA but in view of treatment he was getting in NDA, he wanted to quit. Had he been allowed to quit, he would have no future, so much time was spent in locating a friend of his CO. and his CO was requested to go lenient on this boy so that he should not quit Air Force. But for this help, this boy would never have been in Air Force.

E)     Another son had done his LLB and wanted to join Mr. Raj Kumar Aggarwal in his profession. But Mrs. Sushila Devi declined as her husband had spent practically all his life in settling her relative’s children and had no time for his own children. However Renu Gupta and Kapil Dev Aggarwal are self made and never needed crutches in their life unlike those mentioned above and never used their father’s name or conections any time in their life.

ii)      After death of his mother–in-law Mrs. Budhen Devi a dispute arose between her sons over property distribution. Gopal filed a suit for partition. this was dismissed. Then Mr Raj Kumar Aggarwal was engaged to file time barred appeal. Appeal was allowed in favor of of Gopal. Local commissioner was appointed for partition of property who gave a report that property cannot be partitioned and property be sold and money divided between claimants. Property was sold by court at rock bottom prices. Mr. Raj Kumar was again asked for help. he again filed another appeal and sale was set aside and property restored to its original owners. In between Kewal a Brother-in-law (wife's brother) stabbed the purchaser who was connected to local MLA and criminal cases was foisted upon Kewal. Again help of Mr raj Kumar was sought in criminal cases. Mr Raj Kumar Aggarwal 1st got kewal bailed out and than also got the criminal cases quashed otherwise Kewal might have been imprisoned for a long time.

iii)     He got Job for one of his nephew (sister's son) in a private Bank which Bank was later nationalized. He also provided him with other necessities and luxuries of life. The said nephew remained in the job till his retirement. 

iv)     He offered another of his nephews’ (sister's son) full financial, moral and material support to enable him to become an Engineer and shifted him from Ludhiana to Chandigarh to enable him to fulfill his dream. He became Engineer on the strength of offer of support by Mr. Raj Kumar Aggarwal.

v)     He got husband of one his niece out of a difficult situation, when the said relative got in ‘extreme disfavor’ of a minister over the relative’s refusal to oblige the Minister.

vi)      he got job for son-in-law of his sister in a Bank.

In view of responsibilities of relative’s, Mr Raj Kumar Aggarwal could buy his own property only in year 1988 out of his provident fund, where he thereafter lived contentedly along with his family.

An Exception apart which only proves the rule, all the above relatives for whom Mr. Raj Kumar spent his entire life are never seen in later years and those who are seen were never helped.  In-real-world-is-it-good-to-do-good.

Later years

He was never lied in his life and was always ready to help others or those in distress. He lived an honest and contended life and used to daily walk for 4-5 Kilometers till the age of 90 years. On 31st March 2014 he suffered fracture of right neck femur of hip joint for which he was operated on 1^st April 2014 at PGI Chandigarh by Dr Raj Bahadur and got hip implant. On January 20^th 2015, he suffered fracture of left neck femur of hip joint for which he was operated on 21^st January at GMCH Sector 32 Chandigarh by Dr Sudhir Garg. In May 201, he lost appetite. He could not eat or walk. He remained admitted to Hospital GMCH 32. He died peacefully in his sleep at the age of 92 years 4 months on 18th August, 2016. He led a good, contended and fruitful life from 18th April 1924 to 18th August, 2016. He leaves behind his daughter Renu Gupta and Son Kapil Dev Aggarwal.

Kapil Dev Aggarwal