Mehr Chand Mahajan
| Mehr Chand Mahajan | |
|---|---|
| 3rd Chief Justice of India | |
|
In office 4 January 1954 – 22 December 1954 |
|
| Appointed by | Rajendra Prasad |
| Preceded by | M. Patanjali Sastri |
| Succeeded by | Bijan Kumar Mukherjea |
| 1st Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir | |
|
In office 15 October 1947 – 5 March 1948 |
|
| Preceded by | Janak Singh |
| Succeeded by | Sheikh Abdullah |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
23 December 1889 Kangra, Punjab, British India (now in Himachal Pradesh, India) |
| Died | 1967 |
| Website | mehrchandmahajan.org |
Mehr Chand Mahajan (born 23 December 1889, Tika Nagrota, Kangra district–1967) was the third Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India. Prior to that he was the Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir during the reign of Maharaja Hari Singh and played a key role in the accession of J&K to India. He was the Indian National Congress nominee on the Radcliff Commission that defined the boundaries of India and Pakistan.
Justice Mahajan made his name as an accomplished lawyer, a respected judge, and an influential politician. As a judge he was incisive and forthright and had many leading judgments to his credit.
Mehr Chand Mahajan was born in Tika Nagrota in the Kangra district in 1889. His father, Lala Brij Lal, was an advocate, who later established a reputed legal practice at Dharmsala.
After completing middle school, Mahajan went to study in the Government College, Lahore, graduating in 1910. He enrolled in M.Sc. Chemistry, but switched to law following persuasion from his father. He earned an LL.B. degree in 1912.
Mahajan started his career as a lawyer in 1913 in Dharamsala, where he spent a year practising. He spent the next four years (1914-1918) as a lawyer in Gurdaspur. He then practiced law in Lahore from 1918 to 1943. During his time there, he served as president of the High Court Bar Association of Lahore (1938 to 1943).
Mahajan was Prime Minister of J&K during 1947 and played a role in the accession of the state to India. He was the one who turned down the offer of district Lahore and instead annexed district Gurdaspur to India.
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