Mukund Ramrao Jayakar

Mukund Ramrao Jayakar (13 November 1873 - 10 March 1959, Bombay) was the first Vice-Chancellor of the University of Poona.

Jayakar was born in a Marathi Pathare Prabhu family.

Jayakar studied LL.B. in Bombay in 1902 and became a barrister in 1905 at London. In 1905 he was enrolled as advocate of the Bombay High Court. He was Director of The Bombay Chronicle along with Jinnah.

He was a member of the Bombay Legislative Council during 1923-1925, and a leader of the Swaraj Party. He also became member of Central Legislative Assembly. In 1937 he became Judge of Federal Court of India at Delhi. In December 1946, he joined Constituent Assembly of India. He was also the chairman of Indian Road Development Committee, formed in 1927 to report some recommendations in the highway development. He was a member of Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha.

He was elected to the Constituent Assembly on a Congress ticket from Bombay. However after a brief stint in the Assembly, he gave up his seat which Babasaheb Dr. B. R. Ambedkar then occupied.

In 1930, Jayakar and Tej Bahadur Sapru were involved in negotiations between Congress and the Government when Motilal Nehru and other Congress members were imprisoned. These negotiations are said to have led to the Gandhi-Irwin Pact of March 1931 whereby Congress members were released from prison in return for the discontinuation of non-cooperation; the salt tax was removed and Congress members would be represented at the next Round Table Conference. Jayakar was a member of the Judicial Privy Council in London and attended the Round Table Conference in London in 1931. Jayakar was known for his educationist and philanthropist work. He received an honorary DCL from Oxford University in 1938, upon the recommendation of E. J. Thompson. He was Vice-Chancellor of Poona University from 1948 upon its foundation, until his retirement in 1955.

He died on 10 March 1959 at Bombay at the age of 86. Solicitor Rajan Jayakar and Mohan Jayakar are hisgrandsons