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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.

Early life

Judge Nanavati is 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.

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.

Nanavati Commission

Judge Nanavati was appointed by the NDA to probe the 1984 Anti-Sikh riots. He was the one-man commission 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".

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.

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 given them only half their desires, appointing a retired Gujarati judge..

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."

References

1. I haven't absolved Cong: Nanavati Rediff - February 17, 2005
2. Bio Supreme court of India
3. Credible evidence against Tytler: Nanavati The Hindu - August 9, 2005
4. No police lapse in Gujarat riots: Justice Nanavati Rediff - May 18, 2003
5. Former Supreme Court judge joins Gujarat probe The Hindu - May 23, 2002

• Indian judges
• 1935 births
• Living people
• Hindu law jurists