NUALS Cochin has awarded an honorary Doctor of Law (LL.D.) to former Supreme Court of India judge VR Krishna Iyer.

The Executive Council of the university awarded the honoris cause to Iyer in light of his “immense contributions to the growth of jurisprudence and to the cause of law and justice”.

In 1957 Iyer became a minister in the first ever Communist government in Kerala headed by E. M. S. Nampoothiripad and held the portfolios of Home, Law, Irrigation and Social Welfare. He was instrumental to the Kerala Land Reforms Act, which brought about a drastic change in the land holding pattern prevailing at that time, and as a Supreme Court judge was later responsible for a wide interpretation of Article 21 of the Constitution, to make the constitutional safeguards of life and liberty more accessible to the underprivileged.