By: Ashok Kumar Shukla ( Sr. Associate Editor-ICN Group )
One-third of the ICJ’s 15-member bench, or five judges, is elected every three years for a nine-year term.
Justice Dalveer Bhandari has been re-elected to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), winning the last of five seats for which elections were held, after Britain pulled out its candidate Christopher Greenwood before the 12th round of voting.
Justice Bhandari is the fourth Indian judge to be elected to the ICJ after B.N. Rau, Nagendra Singh and R.S. Pathak. The Government of India also expressed appreciation for the United Kingdom that chose to withdraw its candidate at the last moment.
This is the first time since the ICJ, based in The Hague, Netherlands, was established in 1945 that there will be no British judge. Judge Dalveer Bhandari received all 15 votes in the UN Security Council and 183 out of the 193 votes in the UN General Assembly.
The Indian National Group to the Permanent Court of Arbitration had re-nominated Judge Bhandari as India’s candidate in June 2017.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated him and also Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj and her team.
The Indian foreign ministry had over the past few weeks lobbied hard with countries to ensure Bhandari secures a two-thirds majority win.
Bhandari was born on 1 October, 1946 in Jodhpur.He obtained graduate degrees in humanities and laws from Jodhpur University in 1966 and 1968.
He also pursued a Master of Laws degree while in the United States.Bhandari returned to India in 1973 and returned to the Rajasthan High Court, practising all branches of law and teaching International Law and Constitutional law at Jodhpur University for about three years.
He comes from a family of illustrious lawyers. His father, Mahaveer Chand Bhandari, and grandfather, B.C. Bhandari, were members of the Rajasthan bar.
He is known for his interest in computerization and intellectual property law, apart from video conferencing facilities, legal aid and legal literacy programmes.
