“This Is The Limit”: Chief Justice On Lawyer’s “Hrishikesh Mukherjee” Error

The Supreme Court witnessed a “Gol Maal” moment today when a lawyer referred to Justice Hrishikesh Roy as “Justice Hrishikesh Mukherjee” — a hilarious mix-up with the renowned filmmaker. Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud immediately corrected the lawyer and told him that an advocate must know the names of judges.

While mentioning a case heard by the top court earlier, an advocate said, “This matter was before Justice Hrishikesh Mukherjee.”

The Chief Justice was quick to cut the lawyer short. “Hrishikesh Mukherjee or Justice Hrishikesh Roy? If you make Roy into Mukherjee then… you must know your judges. This is the limit. Please go and check the website.”

Justice Hrishikesh Roy took oath as a Supreme Court judged in September 2019. He earlier served as the Chief Justice of Kerala High Court and as a judge in Gauhati High Court. Before becoming a judge, he worked as a senior lawyer.

The lawyer’s replacement of “Roy” with “Mukherjee” is hilarious because he inadvertently referred to Hrishikesh Mukherjee, the filmmaker whose slice-of-life movies have stood the test of time and continue to be popular across generations.

Some of the popular movies directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee, who died in 2006 at the age of 83, include Anand, Gol Maal, Chupke Chupke, Guddi, Bawarchi and Abhimaan.

Regarded as one of the greatest filmmakers of Indian cinema, Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s career spanned four decades during which he directed 42 films. Treading a middle path between the extravagance of mainstream commercial movies and the hard realism of arthouse cinema, Mukherjee could drive the audience to tears, as in Anand, and make them roll on the floor laughing, as in Gol Maal. The movies were full of situational humour and also captured the generational clashes and subtle rebellion by the younger ones.