Sir Mota Singh, the UK’s first ever ethnic minority judge, has passed away at the age of 86.
Sir Mota Singh QC was the first person from a minority ethnic group and first Judge to sit on the English Bench wearing a turban instead of a horse-hair wig.
In 1982 after Mota Singh’s first day as presiding judge a cartoon depicted a judge wearing turban instead of the traditional horse-hair wig and defendant addressing the judge “I hope your head feels better soon”. This was not mockery: this was marking a very significant moment – here was the first member of any minority ethnic community to be appointed a Judge in the United Kingdom.
Mota Singh was a deeply pious man of great charm and considerable humility. The latter was evident when performing sewa at his local Gurudwara in Southfields. Sikhism sees all people as equal in eyes of God – none is high, none is low – Mota Singh practised this implicitly.
Mota Singh’s story is that of high achievement against the odds. He was born in 1930 in Nairobi (Kenya) and tragically lost his father in a stabbing incident. As the eldest son, but only 16 he became head of the family and gave up schooling to take up work to provide for them. After some minor jobs, the academically gifted, Mota Singh worked for a legal firm and studied law. He completed first part of the exams to become a barrister while in Kenya before coming to the UK in 1953 to complete the second part.
Soon the London-trained barrister was back in Kenya in his own practice.
In Nairobi he took to public service becoming an Alderman of Nairobi City Council. Following, Kenya’s Independence, he decided to come to the UK. Joining the English Bar was not easy for an outsider – Mota Singh never complained about it. In fact he later caused controversy when he said that he had never faced any act of racism. When criticised for this, his response was “well that is the truth”. He took silk, becoming Queen’s Counsel in 1978 and later a Circuit Judge. The esteem in which he was held by his colleagues at the Bar was evident by the battery of lawyers high and low who gathered to bid him farewell when he retired in 2002.
Mota Singh was knighted in 2012 for services to the law and his charitable works.
He was the pride of UK’s Sikh community – once described as the “Noor and Nishan” of the Sikhs.
Mota Singh married Swaran Singh in 1950 who survives him.
(Ravi Govindia is a Wandsworth Council leader)
