Epitomized truth, honest and justice, he is the last of the old guard judges of Goa and India!

JUSTICE is an intangible concept – like truth and honesty. But Justice Eurico Santana da Silva epitomized all three attributes. As he was one of the last Goan judges who could speak English and Portuguese and knew the laws enacted by the Portuguese rulers, as well as he knew the Indian laws enacted by the British, such as the Indian Penal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code.
Born on May 10, 1933, Justice Eurico Santana da Silva had not yet attained the age of 92 years when he passed away on March 28, 2025. He must have been an inspiration to his four sons, one of whom is a Chief Judicial Magistrate at Margao and perhaps wants to emulate his distinguished father. He was studying at Loyola high school in Margao and can speak Portuguese as well as English, according to some lawyers.
Laypersons may not be aware of the fact that when judges are elevated to the high court, there are two streams of entry. One is from the bar, meaning counsels who argue regularly before the erudite judges who then invite them to join the bench or accept judgeship. Most accept while a few do not like the late senior advocate Iqbal Chagla in Mumbai who refused judgeship of the Supreme Court.

REFUSED JUDGESHIP
BUT why on earth would he refuse judgeship of the Supreme Court? “I would have to relocate from Mumbai to Delhi and would have had too short a term as a Chief Justice of India to have made much of a difference,” he replied to a question from an advocate at the David Sassoon Library in Mumbai, where he was invited to speak more than a year ago.
This is admirable coming from a senior advocate who was the son of an equally distinguished jurist. His father, Justice MC Chagla wrote the poetic sounding, “Roses in December” an autobiography of his tumultuous years as the first chief justice of India. Sometimes, there are secrets which are never told and what is told is what the judge wants the people to believe. But Justice Chagla was honest in his autobiography.
His grandson is Justice Riyaz Chagla, the son of Iqbal Chagla. He is always cool, calm and collected in the court room, evidence of his illustrious lineage. But to return to the erudite judge, late Eurico Santanada Silva, he was appointed on December 6, 1957 as the judge of the Julgado Municipal Espicial at Ponda.

LUCRATIVE PRACTICE
ONE-third vacancies in all the high courts are filled by those senior counsels who have a lucrative practice and impress the judges with their knowledge and court etiquette. The remaining two-third vacancies in the high courts are filled by elevating district and sessions court judges to the high court such as Justice Bharat Deshpande, who was earlier the principal district and sessions judge in Margao before being elevated as a high court judge.
On April 20, 1964 Justice Eurico Santana da Silva was promoted to civil judge, senior division and judicial magistrate first class. On April 18, 1974 the high court administrational Bombay (as it was then known) promoted him to be the chief judicial magistrate of Goa, Daman and Diu which entailed much greater responsibilities such as jail up to seven years for serious crimes.
The Bombay high court administration elevated him to the post of district and sessions judge at south Goa in Margao on February 4, 1981 and this imposed a huge responsibility on him to try serious crimes like murder, because he had the responsibility of imposing the death sentence on those who deserved it.
The apex of his career was when the high court of Bombay elevated him as a judge of the Goa bench of the Bombay high court on July 30, 1990 and he retired on May 9, 1995. His career as a high court judge must have been tumultuous because he would have served on a division bench which would have to confirm death sentences.

SENSITIVE POSTING
JUSTICE Eurico Santana da Silva also headed the Goa State Police Complaints Authority for several years after his retirement. This is a sensitive post which comes under the Goa Government or the executive and is given to those judges who do not run afoul of the establishment.
Justice Eurico Santana da Silva is survived by four sons. At least one of them is in Portugal. Interestingly, one of the four sons of the erudite judge, who has risen from the post of judicial magistrate first class to become a chief judicial magistrate at Margao, has filed a writ petition in the high court of Bombay at Goa, seeking that the administration of the high court prepare a seniority list of judicial officers which, he says, has not been prepared for some years.
The reason for him to file this writ petition could possibly be because he was superseded to the district and sessions court by two of his juniors whom he has impleaded in his writ petition. This writ petition has been transferred to the principal bench of the Bombay high court, where service matters concerning the judiciary are adjudicated.