Sir Pramada Charan Banerjee (10 April 1848 – 22 March 1930) was a

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

Indian jurist of the British Raj era in the

Allahabad High Court Allahabad High Court, also known as High Court of Judicature at Allahabad is the high court based in Prayagraj that has jurisdiction over the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It was established on 17 March 1866, making it one of the oldest high ...

and also Vice-Chancellor of the University of Allahabad. Banerjee was born on 10 April 1848. He lived in

Uttarpara Uttarpara or Uttarpara Kotrung is a city and a municipality of Hooghly district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is a part of the area covered by Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA). Uttarpara is located at , within 10 k ...

and attended Presidency College, Calcutta and the University of Calcutta, from which he respectively obtained B.A. and

B.L. Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Chi ...

degrees. He practised at the

Bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar (u ...

Bankipore Bankipur is a neighbourhood and residential area in Patna, in the Indian state of Bihar. It is located on the bank of the river Ganges. The prime attraction is the Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Library built by Khan Bahadur Khuda Bakhsh in 1891 and Gol ...

until moving to

Allahabad Allahabad (), officially known as Prayagraj, also known as Ilahabad, is a metropolis in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.The other five cities were: Agra, Kanpur (Cawnpore), Lucknow, Meerut, and Varanasi (Benares). It is the administrat ...

in 1870. Banerjee first entered the judiciary of India in January 1872 as a munsif, working at Allahabad, Benares and Ghazipore. He was appointed a

subordinate judge A subordinate judge (also called subjudge, sub judge, or sub-judge) is the judge A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other eviden ...

in 1880, working first in the Small Causes Courts of Agra, where he was the first Indian judge, and then at Allahabad. He held a brief appointment as an additional civil judge at Lucknow in 1893 before becoming a puisne judge for the North-Western Provinces at Allahabad High Court in December of that year. He remained in that office until August 1923, when he was replaced by Kanhaiya Lal prior to retiring from the bench in March 1924. Banerjee was the second Indian to be appointed a judge at the Allahabad High Court, the first being

Syed Mahmood Justice Syed Mahmood (also spelled Sayyid Mahmud; 24 May 1850 – 8 May 1903) was Puisne Judge of the High Court, North-Western Provinces of British India from 1887 to 1893, after having served in the High Court in a temporary capacity as offi ...

. Mahmood had retired from the Court in the face of accusations that his chronic drunkenness was affecting his ability and it was his place that Banerjee took. With Mahmood, Chief Justice John Edge and others, he "made indelible imprints greatness as Judges on the pages of llahabad High Court’slaw reports". Appointed a Knight Bachelor in the

1913 Birthday Honours The 1913 Birthday Honours were appointments in the British Empire of King George V to Orders and decorations of the Commonwealth realms, various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens. The appointments were made to celeb ...

, Banerjee was a member of the law faculty at the University of Allahabad and was Vice-Chancellor of the university from 1917 to 1919, in which year the university conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Laws, ''

honoris causa An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hono ...

''; later, it also established the P. C. Banerjee Hostel in honour of him. In 1921, he was awarded the Kaisar-i-Hind Medal, first class, by George V in recognition of his public service. Banerjee died at the age of 82. Among his children was Lalit Mohan Banerjee, who also served as a judge in the Allahabad High Court.

Recognition

Allahabad University established the Sir Pramada Charan Banerjee

hostel A hostel is a form of low-cost, short-term shared sociable lodging where guests can rent a bed, usually a bunk bed in a dormitory, with shared use of a lounge and sometimes a kitchen. Rooms can be mixed or single-sex and have private or shared b ...

in 1915 in his honour.

References

Notes Citations {{DEFAULTSORT:Banerjee, Pramada Charan Indian academic administrators Judges of the Allahabad High Court 1848 births 1930 deaths University of Calcutta alumni People from Hooghly district Knights Bachelor Indian Knights Bachelor Recipients of the Kaisar-i-Hind Medal Presidency University, Kolkata alumni Academic staff of the University of Allahabad Scholars from Kolkata