Rajindar Sachar (22 December 1923 – 20 April 2018) was an Indian lawyer and a former Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court.

[1] He was a member of United Nations Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and also served as a counsel for the People's Union for Civil Liberties.

[1] After coming back to India from Pakistan, and accepting Indian citizenship, on 22 April 1952 Sachar enrolled as an advocate at Simla.

On 8 December 1960 he became an advocate in the Supreme Court of India, engaging in a wide variety of cases concerning civil, criminal and revenue issues.

Sachar helped this group prepare memoranda levelling charges of corruption and mal-administration against Pratap Singh Kairon, Chief Minister of the Indian state of Punjab.

Justice Sudhi Ranjan Das was appointed to look into the charges, and in June 1964 found Kairon guilty on eight counts.

[1] The transfer from Sikkim to Rajasthan was made without Sachar's consent during the Emergency (June 1975 – March 1977) when elections and civil liberties were suspended.

[16] Sachar was appointed to a high-level Advisory Committee chaired by Chief Justice Aziz Mushabber Ahmadi to review the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993 and determine whether structural changes and amendments were needed.

[17] In April 2003, as council for the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), Sachar argued before the Supreme Court of India that the Prevention of Terrorist Activities Act (POTA) should be quashed since it violated fundamental rights.

[3] On 24 November 2002 the police arrested twenty six people in the Dharmapuri district of Tamil Nadu, and on 10 January 2003 they were placed under POTA by the government on the grounds that they were members of the Radical Youth League of the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist).

Sachar led a team of human rights activists who visited them in jail on 15 September 2004 and persuaded them to end the hunger strike.

In its report issued in March 2000 the mission found that the Kenyan government had failed to meet its international obligations regarding protection of its citizens' housing rights.

[20] Rajindra Sachar participated with retired justices Hosbet Suresh and Siraj Mehfuz Daud in an investigation by the Indian People's Human Rights Tribunal into a massive slum clearance drive in Mumbai, which had the ostensible purpose of preserving the Sanjay Gandhi National Park.

[23] In March 2005 Justice Rajinder Sachar was appointed to a committee to study the condition of the Muslim community in India and to prepare a comprehensive report on their social, economic and educational status.

[4] The report showed the growing social and economic insecurity that had been imposed on Muslims since independence sixty years earlier.

[26] The Sachar Committee recommendations aimed to promote inclusion of the diverse communities in India and their equal treatment.

Thus, a speaker at a seminar in April 2008 sponsored by a group called "Bharatiya Vichar Manch" described the report as unconstitutional, saying "It should be rejected completely.

[29] In December 2009 it was reported that Sachar was being proposed as Governor of West Bengal to replace Gopalkrishna Gandhi, whose term had expired.

Soon, the bureaucracy will find that after the massive ego and power lust of the politicians are satisfied, there comes a day when the bureaucrat is at the receiving end.

Bureaucrat is an unruly horse but has the potential to win the Derby, provided the Jockey is the expert, capable of giving proper motivation and desired direction.

[35] In March 2003 Sachar was a signatory to a statement that condemned the US-led invasion of Iraq, calling it "unprovoked, unjustified, violates international law and constitut[ing] an act of aggression".

[41] In 2003 he said: "There is an insistent public demand now that matters connected with appointments and misdemeanours of the higher judiciary need to be dealt with by an independent body using transparent means instead of the present unsatisfactory mechanism shrouded in secrecy".