Justice Debapriya Mohapatra, former Supreme Court judge, passed away following a brief illness here on Tuesday. He was 85 and is survived by his wife, three daughters and four grandchildren.
Born on August 3, 1937 in a family of eminent lawyers at Cuttack, Justice Mohapatra was Acting Chief Justice of the Orissa High Court between May 1995 and February 1996. He was elevated as Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court in February 1996 and as a Supreme Court judge on December 9, 1998.
Post retirement from the apex court, he was appointed as Chairperson of the Odisha Human Rights Commission (OHRC) in 2003 and worked in this capacity till August 2007.