A distinguished Calcutta (now Kolkata) barrister, the 1st Baron Sinha was the first Indian to be appointed Advocate-General of Bengal in 1905. Four years later, he became the first Indian to be appointed to the
Viceroy's Executive Council. In 1917, he became an assistant to the then-Secretary of State for India,
Edwin Montagu, at the
Imperial War Conference. He was raised to the peerage two years later, in part due to the perceived need for an Indian representative to steer India-related legislation through the House of Lords. There was controversy over the succession on his death in 1928. He ought to have been succeeded in his title by his first son, Arun Kumar Sinha. However, Arun Kumar had been born at a time when there was no system of registration of births and marriages in India, so he was unable to prove his claim to the title to the satisfaction of the
House of Lords at that time. In 1936, Arun Kumar Sinha, 2nd Baron Sinha, presented a petition for a
writ of summons to the House of Lords. The petition was referred to the Committee for Privileges on 27 June 1938, and a Commission was appointed to take evidence in Calcutta, on this birth and marriage. Ultimately, on 25 July 1939, the
Committee for Privileges decided that Lord Sinha had succeeded in his claim. The decision remarks that the decision was not precedent for a peer who had legally married two wives (at the same time), and that there is no British law on heirship in the case of a polygamous marriage; but in this case that difficulty did not arise - and in fact the first Lord Sinha had belonged to the
Sadharan Brahmo Samaj, a branch of Hinduism which required monogamy. Having fully established his claim, Arun Kumar, now confirmed as the second Lord Sinha, was subsequently issued a writ of summons directing him to take his seat in the House of Lords. Owing to the
Second World War, however, he was unable to attend Parliament until 1 August 1945, when he was finally sworn in and signed the Register of Peers. More controversy followed in the early 1950s, when he was refused a
British passport: eventually, in 1955, he was issued with a passport which described him as a
British subject. He continued to regularly attend sessions and speak in the House of Lords until his death in 1967. The 3rd Baron Sinha, who unlike his father and grandfather pursued a business career, only infrequently attended sessions of the Lords as he served as chairman of general merchants and holding company Macneill & Barry (now post its acquisition Williamson Magor) and as a director of several Kolkata-based firms, including the
Statesman. Both siblings however were acquitted in the subsequent trial, with the fire controversially deemed to have been accidental. The 4th Baron was succeeded in the barony by his uncle Aninda Kumar Sinha as the 5th Baron Sinha, a retired sales manager and the younger son of the second baron. Prior to the death of the 4th Baron, however, it was thought that his uncle, the heir presumptive, had predeceased his nephew, possibly without heirs. Desiring to keep his new status a secret, the new Lord Sinha did not register his claim with the British authorities. In 1996, the 4th Baron's sister, Anjana Lahiri notified the British press that her uncle was still alive and resident in the UK. He however does not appear on the
Roll of the Peerage; as a result, he may not use the title in an official capacity until he registers with the
College of Arms and provides the necessary documentation to be listed on the roll. The 6th Baron Sinha continues to claim the title as of 2015. As of 2005, he was working as a travel agent. ==Barons Sinha (1919)==