Bengal Law House: Where legal legacies begin | Patna News – Times of India
Patna: Tucked away on Ashok Rajpath in the Chowhatta locality, Bengal Law House stands as a living relic of Patna’s legal and academic heritage. For nearly nine decades, this iconic bookshop has served as a pilgrimage site for generations of law students, faculty and legal luminaries.Established in the 1930s, the shop has long been a trusted sanctuary for aspiring legal minds. “Ever since its inception, it has helped hundreds and thousands of youths build bright careers in law,” said 82-year-old Mohammad Saluddin Khan, the current proprietor. “A galaxy of eminent lawyers and judges from the Supreme Court, high courts and district courts have been regular visitors,” he added.Among its storied clientele were legal giants such as K B N Singh, Murtuza Fazal Ali, Nand Lal Untwalia, Anant Prasad Singh, Aftab Alam, Ahsanuddin Amanullah, Syed Sarwar Ali, Seema Ali and Prabha Shankar Mishra. “They used to visit this bookstore frequently to purchase the books of their choice. The shopkeeper would guide them about the books best suited to their purpose,” Khan said.The story of Bengal Law House began with Khan’s father, M R Khan, who founded the shop under the inspiration of eminent barrister P R Das. “Even two decades after the establishment of Patna Law College in 1909, there was not a single bookshop selling law books in the area,” Khan said. “Teachers and students had to travel all the way to a shop in Patna City Chawk to get their books,” he added.Spotting this gap, M R Khan opened the shop in the family’s ancestral home, just a stone’s throw from the college’s then-location near the Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library. It quickly gained popularity, sourcing books and journals from Calcutta (now Kolkata) and other major cities to cater to the needs of students, teachers and lawyers alike.“Even after the college moved to its current location at Golakpur (opposite Mahendru), people continued to come,” said Khan.But times have changed. The era of bustling book sales has given way to quieter days. “Books hardly sell these days,” he said with a tinge of regret. “Present-day law students rarely buy textbooks or reference books as reading habits have sharply declined. Hardly 10% of students buy new books. The remaining 90% rely on guess papers and ‘passports’ to get through their exams.”Despite the changing tide, the shop still holds sentimental value. “Some of our old students, now studying or practising in other cities, or even abroad, do drop by. Sometimes they buy books, or just come to relive their student days. The present Lokayukta of Bihar, Justice Shyam Kishore Sharma, is still a regular visitor,” he said.Mohammad Shariff, dean of the law faculty at Patna University, said, “Even though a number of bookshops dealing in law books have emerged across the city, Bengal Law House continues to be the most popular among law students. This shop fulfils the academic requirements of all types of people concerned with legal education.”
