Sabyasachi Mukharji

Family background Sabyasachi Mukharji was born in Calcutta, the third son of Rai Bahadur Bejoy Bihari Mukharji, first Indian Director General of Land Records, in Bengal Presidency. His elder brothers were Justice Prasanta Bihari Mukharji, Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court and the eminent cardiologist, Dr. Aurobindo Bihari Mukharji.

Education He received his secondary education at the Mitra Institution, Bhowanipore, Calcutta; then a degree from Presidency College, Calcutta, followed by a degree in Economics with honours from Calcutta University in 1946. He was called to the bar by the Society of the Middle Temple. While on the court Mukharji made a ruling on an election rolls issue that delayed an election. The Election Commission sought superintending control from the Supreme Court which ordered him to hear the case immediately and issue his ruling within five days. While complying with the order he made it quite clear that timing and such issues were within the discretion of the sitting judge and not subject to superintending control. He confirmed his earlier order. On 1 March 1983, he became acting Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court. He issued his initial opinion just five days after becoming Chief Justice, but did not live to see the court's final disposition of the matter. It was also during his term in the summer of 1990 that corruption charges surfaced against judges on the Bombay High Court, which caused a "crisis of credibility" in the judiciary for the whole country. Charges of corruption, nepotism, casteism and politicisation of appointments for most of the high courts began to make the news. Justice Mukharji has received criticism for his handling of the V. Ramaswami case, where his appointment of a committee did not result in corrective action, although Parliament was almost unable to resolve that case. Regarding the conduct of judges, Mukharji said: The Judges either of the Supreme Court or the High Courts and the Chief Justice are subject to the rule of law like any other citizen of this country and must abide by the norms and regulations prescribed in as much as these and to the extent are applicable to them. I always thought this was clear and need no reiteration. We must therefore, ensure that there is no conduct of the Judges which affects the faith of the people that Judges do not live according to law.

Over the course of his Supreme Court tenure, Mukharji authored 315 judgments and sat on 597 benches.

Mukharji died of a heart attack complicated by diabetes on 25 September 1990 in London, having just arrived from a lecture tour of the United States. He was the second Chief Justice to die in office, the first have been Chief Justice H. J. Kania.