US gets first woman Sikh judge

Indian-beginning Manpreet Monica Singh has end up the primary lady Sikh choose withinside the US.

Manpreet Monica Singh became sworn in as a choose of the Harris County Civil Court at Law No. four in Texas on Friday. “Mama we made it! It is a ‘proper honor’ to rep the humans of Harris County as a Sikh civil courtroom docket choose.

The rite became presided over via way of means of Indian American Judge Ravi Sandill, Texas’ first south Asian choose, in a packed courtroom.

Monica’s father, an architect, migrated to americaA withinside the Nineteen Seventies. Her marketing campaign internet site says, “Her father, AJ immigrated to the U.S. as an architect withinside the early Nineteen Seventies after being issued a inexperienced card following the Immigration Act of 1965. As a young, turbaned Sikh and a then bachelor, he accompanied paintings anyplace irrespective of in which it’d take him.”

Her mother and father operated a details shop. Her marketing campaign internet site says they “confronted blatant discrimination time and time again.”

Manpreet became knowledgeable in Houston and graduated from the University of Texas at Austin following which she finished regulation from the South Texas College of Law.

“Being a girl of color, she is all too acquainted with structures of inequality and she or he is empathetic to the hardships that the common American faces,” says her marketing campaign internet site.

A practicing attorney for 20 years, Singh has attempted over a hundred cases. Her internet site says she is concerned with numerous civil rights enterprises on the local, nation and countrywide level.

She additionally served at the Board of Directors of the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, the Texas Lyceum, and the Sikh Coalition.

Singh has additionally gained a national Passion of Excellence Award.

She became runner-up for Houston Young Lawyers Association Most Outstanding Attorney in 2010 and the South Asian Bar Association Distinguished Member Award Winner in 2017.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner stated:

“It became a proud day for the Sikh Community, however additionally a proud day for all of us of Colour who see the Diversity of the City of Houston withinside the Diversity of the Court.”

At the oath rite, Monica stated, “It approach loads to me due to the fact I constitute H-town (nickname for Houston) the most, so for it to be us, I’m glad for it,” she stated on the oath rite.

“It’s a sincerely large second for the Sikh community,” Sandill stated.

“When they see a person of colour, a person a touch different, they recognise that opportunity is to be had to them. Manpreet isn’t always handiest an envoy for Sikhs, however she’s an envoy for all girls of colour,” he stated.

According to her internet site, Monica and her husband Mandeep were married for 19 years and that they stay in Bellaire. “Together they experience visiting and spending time with their soccer-loving boys that attend Bellaire High School.”

There are an envisioned 500,000 Sikhs withinside the US, with 20,000 Sikhs residing withinside the Houston area.

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