In what was being hailed as reflective of India’s growing diplomatic soft power and hegemony, India had won an overwhelming support of the United Nations General Assembly in the hard fought clash with Britain and secured the re-election of Justice Dalveer Bhandari to the International Court of Justice, the highest Judicial organ of the UN in November 2017. Justice Bhandari had been re-elected to the United Nations apex Judicial body for a period of nine years.
Who is Justice Dalveer Bhandari?
Born on 1st in October 1947 in Jodhpur, India. Justice Dalveer Bhandari had an illustrious career in Indian Higher Judiciary being in position as judge of Delhi High Court, as chief justice of the Bombay High Court and as senior judge of the Supreme Court before being elected as the judge of ICJ in April 2012.
Justice Bhandari also had an eminent and outstanding profession for 23 years as lawyer before becoming the Judge of Delhi High Court in 1991. He also had been an Executive member of the India Chapter of International Law Association since 1994. In 2007 he was also voted as the president of India Law Foundation and since then he continues to be in that position. After 2012 being a judge of ICJ he delivered major pronouncements covering subjects from broad spectrums like Crime of Genocide, Violation of Sovereign Rights, Antarctica, financing of terrorism and nuclear disarmament.
Educational Qualifications
Coming from a family background of legal luminaries, Justice Bhandari had many feathers in the cap of his success. On graduating in humanities and law from Jodhpur University, following the footsteps of his father Mahaveer Chand Bhandari and his grandfather, he became a member of the bar and practiced from 1968 to 1970 in the High Court of Rajasthan. Later in the year of 1970 Justice Bhandari on being granted international scholarship went to University of Chicago. There he attended a workshop on Indian Law. He later completed his Masters of Law Degree from Northwestern University School of Law. He also visited countries like Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Malaysia on international fellowship. Many national and international universities including Hanseo University of South Korea, NLU Delhi, KIIT University, Bhubaneswar, Jain Vishva Bharati University, Rajasthan and Tumkur University in Karnataka have conferred DLitts and LLDs on Justice Bhandari.
Role as Judge
Justice Dalveer Bhandari was appointed as the judge of Delhi High Court in March 1991. He as judge of the High Court delivered many major judgments concerning all branches of law. After serving as judge for 13years he became the Chief Justice of Bombay High Court in July 2004. During his tenure as Chief Justice of the Bombay, he recommended the increase in the sanctioned strength of the court from 60 to 75. Also during his period the Bombay HC achieved the rare feat of functioning on it’s full strength of 60 judges. Justice Bhandari was elevated as the judge of the SC on October 2005 as a senior judge of the Supreme Court he delivered a large number of landmark judgements.
Before leaving the Supreme Court in 2012 he left indebtedness in the hearts of 1000s of homeless urbans having sleepless nights in the streets of Delhi, as he prior to leaving for Hague in 2012 ordered as the Judge of Apex Court the laying up of night shelters in Delhi and other Indian cities. When some night shelters were being demolished by the Delhi authorities, concerned Bhandari gave warning of serious consequences to municipal authorities if such works were not stopped and also ordered authorities to rebuild the demolished structures. This was just one of the many PILs which he had taken up as SC judge. He took up major issues like corruption in the public distribution system towards the end of his term.
Interaction With Law Students
Justice Bhandari as the judge of Supreme Court also trained many students from Yale law school Harvard Law School, Osgoode Hall Law School, University of Wisconsin Law school and many students from various other Canadian and American Universities. In the year 2006 he became a member of governing council of National Law School, Jodhpur. He also became a member of the Governing council of National Law School of India University, Bangalore in the year 2007.
Exceptional Achievements
Justice Dalveer Bhandari is the recipient of many prestigious national and international awards including Padma Bushan, third highest civilian award in India, Rao Sinha Award, Recipient of Dr. Narendra Singh International peace award,2014. At the 150th anniversary of Northwestern University of Law, Chicago was selected as one of it’s 16 most distinguished and illustrious alumni.
