Avinash Deobhakta
Avinash Deobhakta | |
|---|---|
| Personal details | |
| Born | Avinash Ganesh Deobhakta 24 November 1936 Lahore, Punjab, British Raj |
| Died | 2 September 2015 (aged 78) Auckland, New Zealand |
| Profession | Lawyer |
| Known for | First New Zealand judge of Indian origin |
Avinash Ganesh Deobhakta (24 November 1936 – 2 September 2015) was a New Zealand lawyer and jurist. He was the first person of Indian origin to be appointed a District Court judge in New Zealand.
Biography
[edit]Born on 24 November 1936 in Lahore (then in British India, now in Pakistan),[1] Deobhakta was educated in London, and then returned to Uganda.[2] A lawyer, he rose to become the principal state attorney in the Ugandan Department of Public Prosecutions, and was later a chief magistrate.[2] Following the expulsion of Asians from Uganda by Idi Amin in 1972, Deobhakta emigrated to New Zealand with his family,[3] and became a naturalised New Zealander in 1978.[1]
Settling in Auckland, Deobhakta practised as a barrister sole until his appointment as a District Court judge in 1982.[2] He was the first judge in New Zealand of Indian origin.[4] He was also chair of the Waikeria District Prisons Board, and in 2002 was appointed to the New Zealand Parole Board as a northern region panel convenor.[2]
In 1990, Deobhakta was awarded the New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal.[5] He died in Auckland on 2 September 2015.[6]
References
[edit]- ^ a b "New Zealand, Naturalisations, 1843–1981". Ancestry.com Operations. 2010. Retrieved 5 September 2015.
- ^ a b c d "New Zealand Parole Board appointments". New Zealand Government. 27 May 2002. Archived from the original on 23 September 2015. Retrieved 5 September 2015.
- ^ "Harnessing India's mysterious market". Bay of Plenty Times. 5 March 2008. p. 18.
- ^ Leckie, Jacqueline (December 2014). "Anand Satyanand: a prominent son of the Indian diaspora" (PDF). New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies. 16 (2): 31–46. Retrieved 5 September 2015.
- ^ Taylor, Alister; Coddington, Deborah (1994). Honoured by the Queen – New Zealand. Auckland: New Zealand Who's Who Aotearoa. p. 121. ISBN 0-908578-34-2.
- ^ "Avinash Deobhakta death notice". The New Zealand Herald. 4 September 2015. Retrieved 5 September 2015.