Avinash Deobhakta
Personal details
Born
Avinash Ganesh Deobhakta

(1936-11-24)24 November 1936
Lahore, Punjab, British Raj
Died2 September 2015(2015-09-02) (aged 78)
Auckland, New Zealand
ProfessionLawyer
Known forFirst 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

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

  1. 1 2 "New Zealand, Naturalisations, 1843–1981". Ancestry.com Operations. 2010. Retrieved 5 September 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "New Zealand Parole Board appointments". New Zealand Government. 27 May 2002. Archived from the original on 23 September 2015. Retrieved 5 September 2015.
  3. ↑ "Harnessing India's mysterious market". Bay of Plenty Times. 5 March 2008. p. 18.
  4. ↑ 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.
  5. ↑ 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.
  6. ↑ "Avinash Deobhakta death notice". The New Zealand Herald. 4 September 2015. Retrieved 5 September 2015.
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