Lord Denning

Lord Denning (Alfred Thompson Denning) was one of the best-known English judges of the twentieth century and Master of the Rolls from 1962 to 1982. Sikhs remember him for the Court of Appeal ruling of 29 July 1982 in Mandla v Dowell Lee, which held that Sikhs are not a racial group under the Race Relations Act. The case began when Park Grove School in Birmingham refused to admit Mr Mandla's son because he wore a turban and kept his hair uncut, and the Commission for Racial Equality brought the action.

Key moments

• 23 January 1899: born at Whitchurch, Hampshire. He was Master of the Rolls from 19 April 1962 to 29 September 1982 (Wikipedia).
• 29 July 1982: the Court of Appeal, with Denning at its head, ruled that Sikhs are not a racial group under the Act, so they were not protected by it. He compared Sikhs with Moonies and Skinheads, groups against which, he said, the Act left it lawful to discriminate. Sikhs found the comparison insulting (Gurmit Singh, pp. 67 to 68). His last day in court was 30 July 1982 (Wikipedia).
• July and August 1982: the SGPC protested to the British High Commission. The opposition leaders Roy Hattersley and David Steel condemned the ruling, and The Times of 31 July said the 1976 White Paper had specifically named turbans. A march to 10 Downing Street handed in a petition with more than 75,000 signatures (pp. 68 to 70).
• After the ruling: in "After Thoughts: the Sikh boy's turban" Denning wrote that the Court of Appeal had been told nothing of the White Paper or the Commons proceedings, and that, had it been told, it might well have come to a different conclusion (p. 70 and Appendix 53).
• 29 September 1982: he gave his last judgment and left office as Master of the Rolls (Wikipedia).
• 24 March 1983: the House of Lords, with Lord Fraser giving the leading judgment, allowed the appeal and held that Sikhs are a group defined by ethnic origins. Lord Templeman said Sikhs are more than a religious sect, almost a race (pp. 71 to 74). Denning died on 5 March 1999, aged 100 (Wikipedia).

Remembered for: outside Sikh history, judgments such as Central London Property Trust v High Trees House (1947). Within it, a ruling that the House of Lords overturned, and his own later admission that the court had not been told of the White Paper that named turbans.