The Honourable
Haresh Kishinchand Budhrani
KC
5th Speaker of the Gibraltar Parliament
In office
2004–2012
Preceded byJohn Alcantara
Succeeded byAdolfo Canepa
Personal details
Born(1952-06-30)30 June 1952
Mumbai, India
NationalityBritish (Gibraltarian)
ResidenceGibraltar
Alma materKing's College London
College of Law
OccupationBarrister
businessman
politician
PortfolioChairman of the Hindu Merchants' Association
Speaker of the Gibraltar Parliament

Haresh Kishinchand Budhrani KC (born 30 June 1952) is a Gibraltarian barrister of Indian origin. He was Speaker of the Gibraltar Parliament from September 2004 to October 2012.

Biography

Budhrani was born in Mumbai, India, in June 1952. He is of Sindhi origin.[1] He was educated in Derbyshire and later at the College of Law, Guildford. Budhrani commented on the growing acceptability of Hindus in Gibraltar – by 1973 he assessed that Hindus were able to fully join in with the local community.[2]

He graduated in Law in 1974 from King's College London.[3] Budhrani later attended the Inns of Court School of Law becoming a barrister in August 1975.[4]

He was president of the Hindu Merchants' Association of Gibraltar until 2004, following the resignation of The Hon. Judge John E. Alcantara who had been nominated for the position of Speaker by the governing Gibraltar Social Democrats (without the approval of the Opposition).[4] In September 2004, Budhrani took office as Speaker of the Gibraltar House of Assembly (later the Gibraltar Parliament).[5]

In December 2011, he was reappointed by Chief Minister, Fabian Picardo of the Gibraltar Socialist Labour Party.[6]

On 28 September 2012 Budhrani announced that he would relinquish the position of Speaker.[7][8]

Controversies

In May 2012, he was accused of having defaulted business tax payments, and as consequence, his salary of Speaker was withheld by the Gibraltar Treasury.[9] Budhrani stated that although a deduction was really being done from month to month, it was the result of an agreement signed with the Gibraltar Income Tax Office, not an imposition of the same, and that the amount of his debt were not as high as cited by the local media[10] (the Gibraltar Chronicle implied it was over £150,000).[9]

References

  1. ^ Alfonso, Carolin; Kokot, Waltraud; Tölölyan, Khachig (2004). Diaspora, Identity and Religion: New Directions in Theory and Research. Routledge. p. 198. ISBN 9781134390359.
  2. ^ Archer, Edward G. (2006). Gibraltar, Identity And Empire. Routledge. p. 233. ISBN 9780415347969.
  3. ^ LinkedIn (ed.). "Haresh K. Budhrani". Retrieved 21 October 2012.
  4. ^ a b Panorama, ed. (13 September 2004). "Budhrani named Speaker – without Opposition support". Retrieved 21 October 2012.
  5. ^ Gibraltar Parliament (ed.). "Composition of Parliament". Retrieved 21 October 2012.
  6. ^ VOX, ed. (21 December 2011). "Appointment of New Speaker at Gibraltar Parliament". Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 21 October 2012.
  7. ^ "Composition of Parliament". Government of Gibraltar. Retrieved 12 February 2014.
  8. ^ gbc.gi, ed. (1 October 2012). "Parliament passes Broadcasting Act: replaces GBC Act". Archived from the original on 22 February 2014. Retrieved 21 October 2012.
  9. ^ a b Gibraltar Chronicle, ed. (10 May 2012). "Taxing questions for Mr. Speaker". Archived from the original on 26 May 2012. Retrieved 21 October 2012.
  10. ^ Gibraltar Chronicle, ed. (18 May 2012). "Statement by Speaker Haresh Budhrani". Archived from the original on 23 September 2015. Retrieved 21 October 2012.

External links

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