He was born in Kathmandu on 14 September 1907. He led the Nepalese delegation at the 1959 United Nations General Assembly. During the December 1960 royal coup d"état, he was arrested along with British Public Koirala and Ganesh Manitoba Singh.
He died in New Delhi on 15 July 2014.
Upadhyaya was a leader of the Nepal Democratic Congress, which merged with into the Nepali Congress in 1950. Upadhyaya became Home and Law Minister in the Nepali Congress cabinet after the 1959 election. In 1978 he took part in a split in the Nepali Congress, and he and Bakhan Singh Gurung founded the Nepali Congress (Subarna).
