G.T. Nanavati

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Girish Thakorlal Nanavati
G. T. Nanavati
Born	17 February 1935 Jambusar, Gujarat
Occupation	Retired Judge

Girish Thakorlal Nanavati (born 1935 in Jambusar, Gujarat) is a retired judge from the Supreme Court of India. After his retirement he has headed two commissions inquiring into the 1984 Anti-Sikh riots and the Godhra riots.

1 Early Life
2 Career
3 Nanavati Commission
4 Response to Godhra Riots
5 Criticism
6 Notable Quotes
7 References

[edit] Early Life

Judge Nanavati was the eldest of twelve children born to a family of professionals. In his family, his father, grandfather and uncle were all lawyers. Judge Nanavati studied at St. Xaviers College in Mumbai. After finishing his education in the arts, he enrolled in the Government Law College in Mumbai to receive his bachelors and masters degrees in law^[1].

[edit] Career

Mr. G.T. Nanavati enrolled as an advocate in the Bombay High Court in 1958. Circumstances forced him to return to Gujarat from Mumbai when the bifurcation of the Bombay state in 1960 left him a hard choice. His wish to practice at the prestigious Bombay high court went unfulfilled and left for Ahmedabad.

His practice in Ahmedabad was very low key. He dealt with a smattering of revenue cases, but his true potential was realized when he began to practice criminal cases. He received and accepted an offer to become a public prosecutor in 1964, which became a turning point in the young man's career. At that time, high court judges, not the government, used to appoint prosecutors. This began a fifteen year stint prosecuting cases before the high court.

He was appointed a permanent judge to the Gujarat High Court in 1979. 14 years later he was transferred to the high court in Orissa. A year later, in 1994, he was appointed Chief justice of the high court of Orissa. He was transferred again 8 months later to the Karnataka high court. In March 1995 he was appointed as a judge to the Supreme Court of India. Judge Nanavati retired in February 2000^[2].

[edit] Nanavati Commission

Judge Nanavati was appointed by the NDA to probe the 1984 Anti-Sikh riots. He was the one-man commission^[3] aptly named the Nanavati commission. The commission incriminated UPA politicians Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler. He has stated that evidence indicated that it was a "lapse on part of the civil administration" not to call the Indian Army in a timely fashion, "resulting in large-scale rioting and loss of lives".

[edit] Response to Godhra Riots

When asked about the 2002 Godhra riots in 2003 Justice Nanavati stated that evidence recorded till that date had not indicated any 'serious lapses' on the police or the administration of Gujarat during these riots. These comments came before the two-man commission investigating the riots had recorded testimony in Ahmedabad and Vadodara^[4].The findings presented by Justice Nanavati were attacked by PUCL, leftist political parties, and some Muslim groups.[1][2][3][4]

Justice Nanavati later clarified to the Indian Express that his statement was that "no serious allegation had come on record against police and the administration during the district level hearings." He further explained that "This does not include the hearings conducted with regard to Godhra incident and affidavits which have been filed before the Commission," of which there were over 3000 from riot victims^[5].

[edit] Criticism

His appointment, however, has failed to satisfy the critics, who termed it an "eye-wash" and also stated while those opposing the Shah Commission were demanding appointment of a current Supreme Court judge and wanted someone also from outside of Gujarat to ensure total impartiality, the Government had gave them only half their desires, appointing a retired Gujarati judge.^[6].

After the Nanavati panel submitted their results Judge Nanavati was criticised by the Chief Justice of Gujarat, B.J. Diwan, who considered that a statement by an inquiring judge at an unfinished stage of an inquiry was quite improper.

[edit] Notable Quotes

“

I fought more than 3,000 criminal cases, more than 1,000 tax and Constitution-related cases and also innumerable cases concerning environment and corporate laws. There was hardly any Indian law I haven't dealt with at that time." [5]

”