Mutha Venkatasubba Rao

Venkatasubba Rao was born on 18 July 1878 at Akividu in West Godavari district. He was educated at Madras Christian College and took his B.L. degree, after which he was apprenticed to the jurist C. V. Kumaraswami Sastri.

He was enrolled as a vakil in July 1903 and in July 1904 formed a partnership with his college contemporary Radhakrishnaya, practising as Venkatasubba Rao and Radhakrishnaya. He built his practice largely on the Original Side of the Madras High Court.

On 1 November 1921 he was appointed a puisne judge of the Madras High Court, the first practitioner from the Original Side to be raised to the bench and the youngest person to sit on it. He retired in 1939 as acting Chief Justice, and was then appointed the first Agent of Berar, a province under the Nizam of Hyderabad. He also sat on the Delimitation Committee.

The origins of the institution lay in the Women's Home of Service, the social service arm of the Women's Indian Association, of which Andal Venkatasubba Rao was honorary secretary. When Margaret Cousins left India in 1928 and the Poona Seva Sadan Society took charge of the Home with a donation of 750 rupees but was unwilling to spend further, Venkatasubba Rao gave 10,000 rupees from his own fortune, establishing The Madras Seva Sadan.

The Sadan began in a rented house in Mylapore as a home for poor and destitute girls and young women, including deserted wives, widows and orphans, and grew into a group of schools, hostels, vocational institutions, a children's home and an old age home across four campuses in Chennai. Venkatasubba Rao served as its president, and gave away a large part of his wealth to it. He campaigned for the rights and status of women in Hindu society.

He died on 30 December 1960 at the age of 82. The Sir Mutha Venkatasubba Rao Concert Hall in Chetpet and several schools run by the Sadan carry his name.

Venkatasubba Rao was appointed Knight Bachelor in the 1936 New Year Honours and was invested with the knighthood on 7 March 1936 by the Viceroy, the Earl of Willingdon, at Viceroy's House in New Delhi. He also received the King George V and King George VI medals.[2][3][4]