SARADA CHARAN MITTER.
The appointment of Mr. Sarada Charan Mitter to the High Court Bench on the retirement of Mr. Justice Gurudas Banerjee gave universal satisfaction to all classes of the community. Equally eminent as a lawyer and as a Judge, his life is an interesting and instructive study to those who have to struggle through life to attain distinction.
His father was a banyan of respectable talents in a mercantile firm in Calcutta. Born in 1848 in an obscure village in the district of Hoogly, Sarada Charan was very unfortunate in the first few years of his life. He sustained, while only 5 years of age, an irreparable loss in the death of his mother, a pious and affectionate lady, and had it not been for the fostering care of his father, whose sole object in life now became to train up his son, his life might have taken another turn. The death of such a loving and dutiful father was severely felt by him, a lad of 13, while yet a student in the Boys' School (afterwards known as Hare School) and from this time he learnt the virtues of self reliance and courage which secured his success in the long run.
The only relieving feature of this period of his life was his uniform academic success. He was marked in his school as a very intelligent and industrious lad, and won the love and admiration of his teachers, some of whom pronounced him to be destined for a brilliant career. Their expectations were amply fulfilled when in the three successive examinations, Entrance, F. A. and B. A. he secured the highest place. After a short time he took his master's degree with honours, and only a year later, became the fortunate recipient of the Prem Chand Roy Chand Scholarship considering that very few students have up to this date been able to secure this magnificent scholarship, within 6 years of their passing the Entrance Examination, we might unhesitatingly assert that his scholastic career was exceptionally brilliant. He then qualified himself for the bar, and after passing through the necessary tests, joined the High Court as a vakil. The vakils' bar at that time, though not so overstocked as at present, abounded in many eminent men—some of the best
