Former Malaysian Court of Appeal Judge Mahadev Shankar Dies at 94

Former Malaysian Court of Appeal judge Datuk Mahadev Shankar died at Shah Alam Hospital at 2am on Monday, October 26, 2026, at the age of 94. His death was confirmed to Bernama, the Malaysian national news agency, by his close friend Prabhakaran Nair, the founder president of the Malaysia-India Heritage Society. Nair said Shankar died at the hospital at 2am, and the Malay Mail report said funeral arrangements would be announced later.

Family and tributes

The Medico-Legal Society of Malaysia, the society Shankar founded and led as its founding president, published an obituary on Monday. It said he passed away that morning at the age of 94 and is survived by his wife, his children and his grandson.

Nair paid tribute to his friend after confirming the death. "Sadly, the Malaysia-India Heritage Society has lost a dear well-wisher whose friendship and goodwill we shall always cherish," he said.

The Malaysian Bar had recognised Shankar long before his death. Its citation for his 2014 Lifetime Achievement Award described him as the epitome of what a great judge should be, a description repeated in the reports of his death on Monday.

A legal career that began in the 1950s

Shankar was born in Kuala Lumpur in 1932. He began his legal career in the 1950s and became a partner at Shearn Delamore and Co in 1961. He worked in private practice for more than two decades before he joined the bench.

He was appointed a High Court judge in August 1983. He was elevated to the Court of Appeal in 1994, three years before he retired from the bench in November 1997. The Court of Appeal sits in the Palace of Justice in Putrajaya, and Shankar served on it during its early years after his elevation in 1994.

Three royal commissions and human rights work

Shankar served on three Royal Commissions of Inquiry during his public life. The first was the 1971 commission on law reform of marriage and divorce laws. The second was the 1999 commission that probed the black eye injury sustained by Anwar Ibrahim while he was in police custody. The third was the 2007 commission on judicial impropriety related to the VK Lingam video clip.

He was also one of the early commissioners of the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia, known as Suhakam, in 2000. His work on the commissions and on Suhakam ran alongside his judicial career and continued the public role he held after he retired from the Court of Appeal in November 1997.

Shankar died in the early hours of Monday at Shah Alam Hospital, at the age of 94, more than six decades after he first became a partner at his Kuala Lumpur firm in 1961. Funeral arrangements will be announced later, according to the report carried by Malay Mail.