From the bar to the bench

Among the six new judges appointed by the President of India to the Gujarat High Court (GHC) is Jamshed Burjor Pardiwala, former standing counsel for the GHC. Pardiwala is one of two lawyers appointed from the bar while the remaining four were elevated, taking the total strength of judges from 23 to 29, which is still considerably short of the sanctioned number of 42, revealed Gujarat Global News Network of February 8, 2011. Pardiwala took office on February 17.

Justice Jamshed Pardi-wala: experienced jurist

Born on August 12, 1965 in Bombay, Pardiwala graduated from J. P. Arts College in Valsad in south Gujarat in 1985. He obtained his law degree in 1988 and began to practice in that city in January of the following year, moving in 1990 to the GHC in Ahmedabad. Pardiwala, who has experience in almost all branches of law, served as member of Gujarat’s Bar Council from 1994 to 2000, was appointed member of the disciplinary committee of the Bar Council of India and worked as honorary co-editor of the Gujarat Law Herald. He has also been a member of the GHC Legal Services Authority, was appointed standing counsel for the GHC and its subordinate courts since 2002 before his elevation to the bench as an additional judge, as per his bio data available on the GHC’s website.

Pardiwala hails from a family of lawyers in Valsad, his great grandfather Navroji having started his practice in 1894, his grandfather Cawasji joining the bar in 1929 and his father Burjor in 1955. Burjor is president of the Valsad Parsi Anjuman.