Anup Jairam Bhambhani, a first general lawhyer, was born in 1965 in New Delhi. He completed his schooling from Springdales School, New Delhi in 1984 and attended St. Sgtephen’s College, Delhi University to earn his Master’s Degree in Physics in 1989 where he studied nuclear physics.
It was during his studies at college that Nani Palkhivala’s book ‘We, The People’ received by him as a prize, evoked in his the interest to pursue legal studies. He then read for his LL.B. degreeat the Faculty of Law, University of Delhi, which he completed in 1992.
Apart from his academic pursuits, he actively engaged in other activities in school, college and law-school, notably in elocution, debating and theater.
He joined the Bar in 1992 and started practice with a senior lawyer. He went into independent practice soon after, setting his own chambers in 1994, with a large proportion of his practice being in media law and criminal law.
He practiced before the Supreme Court of India, the Delhi High Court and subordinate courts, where he conducted matters relating to civil and criminal defamation, right to privacy, media regulation and self-regulation, breach of parliamentary privilege, broadcasting and telecom regulation, juvenile justice, copyright law, narcotics law, education law, constitutional validity of criminal defamation, contempt of court, death penalty and commercial disputes. He also argued mattes in other High Courts across the country.
He was resource person at multiple national and regional conferences at the National Judicial academy, Delhi Judicial Academy, Maharashtra Judicial Academy, Tata Institute of Social Sciences and at law school seminars on diverse subjects, including free speech, trial-by-media, sting-operations, regulation of social media, incarceration of juveniles, victim compensation, witness protection, hate speech and on-line extremism, to mention a few.
He served as panel lawyer of the Delhi High Court Legal Servgices Committee from 2009 to 2014; was the Nominated Member on the Statutory Committee of the Delhi High Court Legal Services Committee from 26th May 2014 and Member of the Monitoring Committee for legal-aid lawyers from 06th August 2016, till the date of his appointment as Judge.
He has done substantial legal-aid work before various courts for the indigent embroiled with the law, including the field of juvenile justice and death penalty. He has assisted the Delhi High Court as amicyus curiae in several cases involving issues of public significance, which have culimiated in laying down of procedures for affording prompt relief to motor accident victims, setting of railway accident claims, employee compensation claims, compensation for electrocution deaths, guarding building construction workers’ right, waste disposal in Delhi, inspection and reform of juvenile homes, phasing-out of Blue-line buses in Delhi and other similar public interest matters.
He was designated Senior Advocate by the Delhi High Court on 14th February 2014; and was appointed Judge of the Delhi High Court on 22nd October 2018.
