Harpreet Singh Giani
Harpreet Singh Giani is an Indian-born lawyer based in London, England.
Biography
Harpreet Singh Giani was educated at the DAV College, Chandigarh and after obtaining a law degree from the Panjab University at Chandigarh, was admitted to the bar in 1999. He also received a Master of Business Laws degree from the National Law School of India University, Bangalore (2004) as well as a Master of Laws (International Law) from the London School of Economics (2006).
Giani was called to the Bar in India in 1999. Thereafter he was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 2006 at the Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, London.
He is one of a handful of lawyers enjoying the rights of audience in all courts in India (as an advocate) as well as in England & Wales (as a Barrister). In India, he is in independent practice in Chandigarh and in England & Wales, he practices from The Chambers of Andrew Mitchell, QC (Barrister).
He is also an alumnus of the Hague Academy of International Law (2003) and the International Institute of Higher Studies in Criminal Sciences, Siracusa, Italy (2008) where he studied Shariat (Islamic) law.[1]
Giani is a Ph.D. candidate at the Indian Law Institute, New Delhi and is researching the legality, availability, genesis and the application of the death penalty in India.
Giani was also the first ever Indian to intern in the International Criminal Court at The Hague.
Giani is the son of noted Chandigarh lawyer Harinder Singh Giani and the grandson of the renowned Sikh scholar and calligraphist, Pratap Singh Giani.
On the 5th of December 2014, Giani was admitted into the Freedom of the City of London[2]
Publications
- Books
- The Blood Bankers' Legal Handbook (2003)
- Newspaper Columns
- Byte by Byte, Weekly Column in the Indian Express, 1994–1998
- Newspaper Op-Eds
- Dispensing Justice- Lawyers to blame for judicial mess.[3]
- Different strokes - Curious stance against French secular initiative.[4]
- The right to be born - State must take care of its citizens.[5]
- Why court cases pile up - Giving stay orders as a routine is to blame.[6]
- Whither rule of law? - Each acquittal is a blot.[7]
Liberhan Ayodhya Commission of Inquiry
Giani was the Commission's Counsel for the Liberhan Ayodhya Commission of Inquiry. He joined the Commission in 1998, after the previous Counsel had resigned. Giani worked on the final report which was handed over to the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Home Minister P. Chidambaram by Justice Liberhan and Giani on the 30th of June 2009.[8] Giani remained the Commission's Counsel for over a year and a half, till the Commission was wound up with the submission of the report.
Controversy over authorship of the report
In the parliamentary debate in the lower house of the Indian Parliament, Members of Parliament Pinaki Mishra and Sushma Swaraj stated that they believed that the report had in fact been written by Giani rather than Chief Justice Manmohan Singh Liberhan.
In the upper house of parliament, Member of Parliament Arun Jaitley similarly claimed [9] that
| “ | Admittedly, it was Shri Giani who has analyzed the evidence, come to conclusions, edited the report, modified the language, added and modified the ideas. The judge seems only to have done the rest, if anything remained. The Liberhan – Giani report is the first Example of ‘Judgment Outsourcing’. | ” |
Notes
- ↑ Chandigarh lawyer gets international fellowship , The Tribune, June 15, 2008.
- ↑ http://democracy.cityoflondon.gov.uk/documents/s42185/ITEM%209%20-%20Freedoms.pdf
- ↑ , The Tribune, July 3, 2008.
- ↑ , The Tribune, February 24, 2008.
- ↑ , The Tribune, August 8, 2009.
- ↑ , The Tribune, October 26, 2009.
- ↑ , The Tribune, March 15, 2008.
- ↑ "Liberhan Report handed to PM". YouTube. 2009-06-30.
- ↑ BJP Website -