Nagpur:Former Justice of the Bombay High Court Chandrashekhar Shankar Dharmadhikari died at a private hospital here in Maharashtra in the wee hours of Thursday. He was 91. Justice Dharmadhikari was not keeping well and two days back he was admitted to the private hospital where he suffered a cardiac arrest on Wednesday night, a source said.
He breathed his last around 1 am on Thursday, he said.
He is survived by two sons, senior Bombay HC judge Satyaranjan Dharmadhikari and senior lawyer Ashutosh Dharmadhikari, and daughter Dr Aruna Patil. Justice Dharmadhikari was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2003.
He was born on November 20, 1927 at Raipur (then in Madhya Pradesh). After graduating in law from Nagpur, he enrolled as an advocate of the Nagpur bench of the high court in 1956.
During his legal practice, he served as government pleader before being appointed judge of the Bombay High Court in 1972. He retired on November 20, 1989. Maharashtra Governor C Vidyasagar Rao expressed grief over his demise and said the statehas lost a staunch Gandhian and humanist.
Coming from the family of freedom fighters, Justice Dharmadhikari had imbibed Gandhian values right from his childhood. He distinguished himself as one of the finest judges of the Bombay High Court who was associated with some of the most important judgements,” he said. Rao said Justice Dharmadhikari was an outstanding orator and writer, and championed the cause of rural development, dignity of labour and promotion of khadi.