[1][2][3][4] Manohar was born into a family with a strong legal background - her father Kantilal Thakoredas Desai would later become the second chief justice of the High Court of Gujarat.
She graduated from Elphinstone College, Bombay, and then went to Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford where she read Philosophy, Politics and Economics.
She dealt primarily with commercial matters, but also took many family law cases under legal aid schemes.
The government of the day proposed to require Universities to implement a system of quotas for admission to research degrees.
Justice Manohar ruled this unconstitutional, despite a strong backlash from certain interest groups, who, in a show of public umbrage, burnt her effigy.