Bangladesh, May 8 -- The chief justice of India, Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chandrachud, has issued a stern warning against the ill effects of corporal punishment from personal experience as a victim.

Speaking at a seminar in Kathmandu last Saturday, he recalled when he was caned at school. The incident occurred when he was a Class 5 pupil. The eminent jurist is now 65.

That time-lapse alone speaks volumes about its evil. Corporal punishment is never forgotten, only pushed to the side, and every effort made to forget it.

When Dhananjaya was a youth, ignorance of the effects corporal punishment had on the human body and mind was relatively unknown and was up there with bloodletting, and Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) as being beneficial...