Man with roots in Kot Kalan becomes Australia’s first Indian Judge

Barrister Pardeep Singh Tiwana has become the first Indian to be appointed as a judge of the County Court of Victoria (Australia).

The family of the judge originally hail from Jalandhar’s Kot Kalan village, where villagers on Wednesday performed a Path (religious prayer) and distributed sweets after getting this news. No one from Tiwana’s family is presently living in the village.

Villagers said that Barrister Pardeep Singh Tiwana’s (51) family has roots in Kot Kalan, though the Judge himself was born and brought up in the UK and has completed his law degree from the University of Wolverhampton. He did his barrister study from the bar school of Lincoln’s Inn and was the youngest applicant to get a law degree as a barrister.

Tiwana has two scholarships from bar school and applied in 1993 as a 23-year-old youth. He practiced till 2006 there, before moving toAustralia.

After doing a 3-month law course from Melbourne university, he started practicing there as a criminal lawyer in 2006.

Paramjit Singh Raipur, an SGPC member, said that Pardeep Singh Tiwana’s father Ajit Singh Tiwana was close to his family and he used to visit the village once in 2-3 years. He said that he is proud and happy that a man from Jalandhar has become the first Indian Judge in Australia.

Earlier, Jalandhar’s Palbinder Kaur Shergill had become the first Sikh turbaned baptised woman to be appointed as a Supreme Court Judge of Canada in 2017.