Shehnaz Meer | |
---|---|
Judge of the High Court | |
Assumed office 27 January 2003 | |
Appointed by | Thabo Mbeki |
Division | Western Cape |
Judge of the Land Claims Court | |
Assumed office 1996 | |
Appointed by | Nelson Mandela |
Personal details | |
Born | Yasmin Shehnaz Meer 28 June 1955 |
Parent | Fatima Meer |
Alma mater | University of Durban-Westville University of Cape Town University of Warwick |
Yasmin Shehnaz Meer (born 28 June 1955) is a South African judge who has been acting Judge President of the Land Claims Court since 2012. She was appointed as a puisne judge in that court in 1996,and she has additionally been a judge of the Western Cape High Court since 2003. Before she joined the bench,she was an attorney at the Legal Resources Centre.
Meer was born on 28 June 1955. [1] Her mother was political activist Fatima Meer. [2] [3] After matriculating at the Durban Indian Girls' High School in 1972, [4] she attended the University of Durban-Westville,where she completed a BA in 1975. Thereafter she completed an LLB at the University of Cape Town in 1979 and an LLM at the University of Warwick in 1982. [5]
After serving her articles of clerkship at Dullah Omar's law firm, [2] Meer was admitted as an attorney in 1983. [4] She entered legal practice at the Legal Resources Centre in Cape Town,where she worked as an attorney on public interest litigation matters for the next 13 years. [4] She was the centre's deputy national director from 1994 to 1996 and then its acting national director in 1996. [1]
Later in 1996,Meer was appointed as a judge in the newly established Land Claims Court, [1] [5] and she was among the five judges who sat in the first session of the court when it opened in June 1997. [6]
In November 2002,President Thabo Mbeki announced that he would additionally appoint Meer as a judge of the Western Cape Division of the High Court of South Africa. She joined the High Court on 27 January 2003, [7] and thereafter she divided her time between the High Court in Cape Town and the Land Claims Court in Johannesburg. [4] One of her judgments in the High Court,on transparency in political party funding,was upheld by the Constitutional Court of South Africa in My Vote Counts v Minister of Justice and Correctional Services . [5]
In 2012,after Land Claims Court Judge President Fikile Bam died,Meer was installed as the court's acting Judge President. [5] She continued to hold that position in an acting capacity as of the end of 2023. [8]
Meer was an acting judge in the Supreme Court of Appeal in 2011, [5] and she has been nominated for elevation to the Constitutional Court on several occasions. She was shortlisted for elevation in 2003, [2] and interviewed again in 2008. [9] On two later occasions,in 2009 and 2021,she was nominated but withdrew from contention before the Judicial Service Commission held its hearings. [10] [11] [12]
Meer is divorced and has three children. [2]
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