His father's name was Karam Chand Sahni who was a merchant and his mother's name Gulab Devi who belonged to a money-lending family of Pind Dadan Khan.

Ruchi Ram Sahni was a brilliant student he completed his matriculation from Government School Lahore in 1881 and BA in 1884 in which he stood first in the University in December 1885.

Sahni visited Presidency college, Calcutta as a trainee meteorologist under Henry Francis Blanford and guest student in 1885 where he interacted with leading personalities of Bengal.

As a result, Ruchi Ram had to leave Germany hurriedly and went to Manchester in the Lab of Ernest Rutherford who was also mentor of Prof. Kazimierz Fajans.

He was deputed by Mahatma Gandhi to visit Guru ka Bagh Morcha (Amritsar district) in 1921 where the brave Sikhs offered non-violent resistance to the British and won the battle for possession of Gurdwara.

While Mulk Raj Sahni founded Department of Geology at Panjab University, Chandigarh India and published two papers in Nature.