Khurshid Drabu Varrier (8 March 1946 – 20 April 2018) was an English judge, law lecturer and Muslim community leader. He was the first Muslim to be a judge in Britain, serving on immigration and asylum tribunals.

Early life

Drabu was born in Srinagar in Kashmir as Khurshid Hassan Drabu to Ghulam Nabi Drabu, a tax commissioner, and his wife Zarifa. He studied at

Tyndale Biscoe School Tyndale Biscoe School is a school in the Sheikh Bagh neighbourhood, in the Lal Chowk area of Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India. The school was founded in 1880 CE and is one of the oldest schools in Jammu and Kashmir, the oldest being S.P sch ...

, then Sri Pratap College to complete a BA in Political Science. In 1969, he completed a law degree at Aligarh University. He played

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officia ...

for the

Jammu and Kashmir cricket team The Jammu and Kashmir cricket team is a cricket team based in the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, run by JKCA. It is in the Elite Group C of the Ranji Trophy. Its main home ground is the Sher-i-Kashmir Stadium in Srinagar, and i ...

from 1963 to 1970 as an opening batsman.

Career

In November 1971, he moved to England with £3 in his pocket and became a law lecturer. He was called to the bar in 1977. He served as an advocate in the high court in Kashmir between 1978 and 1980 before returning to England to specialise in immigration law. In 1987, he became deputy director of the Immigration Advisory Service. In 1990, he became the first deputy legal director of the

Commission for Racial Equality The Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) was a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom which aimed to address racial discrimination and promote racial equality. The commission was established in 1976, and disbanded in 2007 when its ...

, a position he held until 1997. While at the Commission for Racial Equality, Drabu Varrier was in charge of reviewing the

Race Relations Act 1976 The Race Relations Act 1976 was established by the Parliament of the United Kingdom to prevent discrimination on the grounds of race. The scope of the legislation included discrimination on the grounds of race, colour, nationality, ethnic and n ...

. His judicial career started with serving as a magistrate for 12 years. He served for twelve years as president of the Mental Health Review Tribunal. In 1996, he was appointed to the immigration and asylum tribunal. He became vice president of the tribunal in 2000 and served there until 2007. He still heard cases after retirement in the upper-tier immigration tribunal. He was also a visiting lecturer at the University of Middlesex in the law department. He also served as an adviser to the Ministry of Defence starting in 2002, and encouraged Muslims to join the armed forces. Under his tenure, the number of Muslims serving in the armed forces increased from 25 to almost 800. In the

2010 Birthday Honours The 2010 Birthday Honours for the Commonwealth realms were announced to celebrate the Queen's Birthday on 7 June 2010 in New Zealand, on 12 June 2010 in the United Kingdom, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Sai ...

, he was awarded a

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

Non-profit activities

Khurshid helped found the

Muslim Council of Britain The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) is a national umbrella body with over 500 mosques and educational and charitable associations affiliated to it. It includes national, regional, local, and specialist Muslim organisations and institutions fro ...

and served as the organisation's legal adviser. In 2007, he helped found the

Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board The Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board (MINAB) originated in the United Kingdom on 27 June 2006 with the aim of promoting best practice in British mosques. It is an independent self-regulatory body aspiring to build capacity in mosques, he ...

to promote interfaith dialogue and improving standards in mosque leadership, as well as to reconcile Sunni and

Shia Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his successor (''khalīfa'') and the Imam (spiritual and political leader) after him, mo ...

communities .

Personal life

Drabu married Reefat in 1972. They had four children, daughters Aliya, Farrah and Zayba, and son Hamza. At the time of his death, he was living in Winchester. Khurshid Drabu died on 20 April 2018.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Drabu, Khurshid 1946 births 2018 deaths 20th-century English judges British Muslims Indian emigrants to the United Kingdom Commanders of the Order of the British Empire 20th-century Indian lawyers Jammu and Kashmir cricketers Indian cricketers People from Srinagar Cricketers from Jammu and Kashmir 21st-century English judges