Anup Singh Choudry
| The Hon. Mr. Justice Anup Singh Choudry |
|
|---|---|
| High Court Judge of Uganda | |
| In office 2008–2014 |
|
| Personal details | |
| Born | Justice Anup Singh Choudry 13 August 1949 Masaka, Uganda |
| Spouse(s) | Ravinder Kaur (1984–present) |
| Children | Satbir Kuljeet Judge-Maan |
| Alma mater | Corpus Christi College, Cambridge King's College London |
| Religion | Sikhism |
| Website | [sikhcentenary.com] |
Anup Singh Choudry (born 1950) is a Sikh writer and businessman formerly based in the United Kingdom who is also a High Court judge in Uganda. He was sworn in at a 2 May 2008 ceremony at the State House in Entebbe before President Yoweri Museveni and Chief Justice Benjamin Odoki.[1] On 5 March 2008 Choudry was approved to become a High Court judge for Uganda,[2] the first Sikh High Court judge in that country.[3]
He has written several books, notably Sikh Pilgrimage to Pakistan.
Biography
Anup Singh Choudry is an Ugandan-born Sikh of Punjabi ancestry. His grandfather Hari Singh had migrated from Rawalpindi to Uganda in the early 1900s serving in the then Crown Colony's civil service system. His late father Tarlok Singh had also served in Uganda's civil service, retiring shortly before 1972 when Idi Amin seized the properties and businesses of all the country's Asians and European citizens and forced around 30,000 Asians holding British passports to flee to Britain.
After being schooled in Uganda he travelled to England to study at the University of London and the University of Cambridge. Having qualified as a solicitor, he practised law in England for 20 years until 2000 after which he practised as an auditor in quality control.
Return to Uganda
Anup Singh Choudry has come full circle now by returning to Uganda and its civil service. In 2004 he was nominated for appointment as a Judge of the Uganda High Court by Uganda’s Judicial Service Commission, being approved by the Ugandan parliament.
On respect
Anup Singh Choudry said the following in a BBC interview:
"In any decent society or civilised society we all have the same values as human beings and our values have a base in our spiritual values. At the moment society is looking to its social fabric to give it values and forgetting the spiritual base. And that is where we are losing respect as we would define it in the previous generations."
"In my generation I was taught to respect elders, neighbours, the authorities and teachers. The moment that discipline breaks down what happens is a loss of respect for teachers, for your parents, your religion and the law."
Justice Choudry said he was delighted to be appointed to the bench and added that he would serve Uganda with the same vigour, diligence and dedication as had his late father Tarlok Singh and late grandfather Hari Singh.
The new Justice was one of the delegates at the meeting in Lahore last year in connection with the setting up of Baba Nanak University at Nanakana Sahib in Pakistan where he eloquently put forward his case for allocation of 2500 acres of land for the university campus in a proposal that was successfully approved by the Pakistani authorities.
Publications
- Sikh Pilgrimage to Pakistan
- Flight to Freedom
- Lawyers Office Directory A-Z Ed. Anup Singh Choudry, the first A-Z legal directory in the UK (1989) ISBN 0-9513894-0-8]
- Human Rights of Women in Sikhism
References
- Articles with dead external links from May 2014
- Pages using infoboxes with thumbnail images
- 1950 births
- Living people
- Alumni of King's College London
- British businesspeople
- Sikh writers
- Ugandan people of Indian descent
- Ugandan judges
- Ugandan non-fiction writers
- Ugandan Sikhs
- Punjabi people
- Human rights
- Ugandan people of Punjabi descent
