India Lobbies for Justice Bhandari’s Election to the ICJ

With the election date of 27 April 2012 fast approaching, India has stepped up its efforts seeking support for the election of current Supreme Court Justice Dalveer Bhandari to the ICJ. As noted previously, the two nominees seeking election to the vacancy created by Judge Al-Khasawneh’s departure from the ICJ are India’s Justice Bhandari and Florentino Feliciano from the Philippines.

At home, earlier this month, India’s External Affairs Minister held a meeting with the relevant ambassadors and diplomats in Delhi to to make India’s “case for Justice Bhandari and to ask them to support India.”

Effort’s to garner support for Justice Bhandari are also underway in New York. A recent report notes that “on the possibility of Justice Bhandari’s victory, official sources said India has been lobbying hard for the support” and that India “appears confident of his victory”.

Indian Judge at the ICJ: Some Developments

I had noted earlier that India had nominated Justice Dalveer Bhandari for election to the ICJ. It now appears that the Philippines has nominated Justice Florentino Feliciano for election to the same vacancy. Justice Feliciano has served on the WTO Appellate Body. He was also an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines. He completed his LL.M. and JSD from Yale Law School. The official note on his nomination can be found here. The elections are scheduled for 27 April 2012.

On the topic of Justice Bhandari’s nomination, while browsing the Internet I recently came across this RTI request by Subhash Chandra Agrawal and the response by the MEA, Govt. of India. The RTI request seeks information about the nomination process as it is carried out in India. The response is basic and minimally revealing, repeating only the information available on the ICJ and PCA websites.

Update (25 March 2012): The Hindu has picked up on the story now, as well.