India re-nominates Justice Dalveer Bhandari for another term at ICJ

India has re-nominated Justice Dalveer Bhandari to represent the country on the panel of judges at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague, Netherlands, also known as the World Court, as its candidate for another term.

Justice Bhandari, 69, was elected in April 2012 during simultaneous balloting in both the General Assembly and the Security Council to a seat on the ICJ, the principal judicial organ of the United Nations.

Bhandari's current term runs through February 2018 and his nomination has to be filed before 3 July. India filed Bhandari's re-nomination on Monday with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, well ahead of the deadline.

The ICJ elections will be held in November and if elected, he will serve a term of nine years.

Bhandari has been an active judge at the ICJ and has delivered individual opinions in eleven cases covering a broad spectrum of subjects such as maritime disputes, whaling in Antarctica, crime of genocide, delimitation of continental shelf, nuclear disarmament, financing of terrorism and violation of sovereign rights.

Before joining the ICJ, Bhandari was a judge in the higher judiciary in India for more than 20 years. He had served as a senior judge in the Supreme Court of India.

The ICJ has a panel of 15 judges elected to nine-year terms by the United Nations General Assembly and the Security Council that vote simultaneously but separately. The judges must get an absolute majority in voting in either bodies to be elected to the ICJ.

ICJ judges must be elected from among persons of high moral character, who possess the qualifications required in their respective countries for appointment to the highest judicial offices, or are jurisconsults of recognised competence in international law, according to its website.

While judges are chosen on the basis of their qualifications, no two judges can be from the same nationality. Also, the ICJ tries to ensure proper representation of all the principal legal systems of the world.

Established in 1945, the ICJ settles legal disputes between states and gives advisory on legal questions that have been referred to it by other authorised UN organs.

The court is open to all parties that are party to its statute, which automatically includes all UN member states.