Chittatosh Mookerjee (Born 1 January 1929) was the Chief Justice of the

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

and

Bombay High Court The High Court of Bombay is the high court of the states of Maharashtra and Goa in India, and the union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. It is seated primarily at Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay), and is one of the ol ...

, India. He is the grandson of Bengali scholar and educator

Ashutosh Mukherjee Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee (anglicised, originally Asutosh Mukhopadhyay, also anglicised to Asutosh Mookerjee) (29 June 1864 – 25 May 1924) was a prolific Bengali educator, jurist, barrister and mathematician. He was the first student to be awar ...

and the nephew of

Shyama Prasad Mookerjee Syama Prasad Mukherjee (6 July 1901 – 23 June 1953) was an Indian politician, barrister and academician, who served as India's first Minister for Industry and Supply (currently known as Ministry of Commerce and Industry) in Jawaharlal Nehru' ...

Early life

Mookerjee was born on 1 January 1929 in

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

. His father Rama Prasad Mukherjee was a judge of the

Calcutta High Court The Calcutta High Court is the oldest High Court in India. It is located in B.B.D. Bagh, Kolkata, West Bengal. It has jurisdiction over the state of West Bengal and the Union Territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The High Court buildi ...

. He passed Matriculation Examination in the First Division from Mitra Institution, Bhowanipore, got First Class in the Preliminary, Intermediate and Final Law Examinations of the

Calcutta University The University of Calcutta (informally known as Calcutta University; CU) is a public collegiate state university in India, located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Considered one of best state research university all over India every year, C ...

and passed M.A. in Economics in 1951. Mookerjee entered the legal profession in November 1953.

Career

He was appointed an additional judge of the Calcutta High Court in 1969 and in 1970 he became a permanent judge of the High Court. In 1986 he was elevated as the chief justice of the Calcutta High Court and was transferred to

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

as Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court. Mookerjee retired from judgeship in 1991. He was also the acting

Governor of Maharashtra The governor of Maharashtra is the ceremonial head of the state of Maharashtra. The Constitution of India confers the executive powers of the state to the governor, however the de facto executive powers lie with the Council of Ministers. Bhagat ...

. In 1990 he was the head of tribunal for Kaveri River water dispute. After retirement he became the first chairperson of the

West Bengal Human Rights Commission The West Bengal Human Rights Commission is an agency of the Government of West Bengal, India. It was established based on Notification No. 42 HS/HRC Dt: 31-01-1995 to exercise the powers conferred upon and to perform the functions assigned to th ...

and served there from 1995 to 1998.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mookerjee, Chittatosh 1929 births Living people 20th-century Indian judges Chief Justices of the Calcutta High Court Chief Justices of the Bombay High Court 20th-century Indian lawyers 21st-century Indian judges