New Delhi/Hyderabad: In March 2013, as former Supreme Court docket decide Justice B. Sudershan Reddy was being sworn in as the primary Lokayukta of Goa, opposition leaders from the Congress and NCP protested on the street resulting in Raj Bhavan, the place the ceremony was being held.

Minimize to 2025, and opposition leaders from the identical events have chosen the identical former decide as their vice-presidential candidate, following the resignation of Jagdeep Dhankhar.

He was appointed a everlasting decide of the Andhra Pradesh Excessive Court docket in Could 1995, and was Chief Justice of the Gauhati Excessive Court docket in December 2005. He was elevated to the Supreme Court docket in January 2007, and retired in July 2011.

Former Supreme Court docket decide Justice M.B. Lokur describes him as “warm-hearted” and a “no-nonsense particular person”.

A lawyer, who labored with Justice Reddy in Hyderabad, recalled how Justice Reddy would at all times personally see him out every time the lawyer visited his home. “This can be a small however telling gesture, displaying his graciousness and real character,” the lawyer advised ThePrint on situation of anonymity.

Asserting Justice Reddy’s candidature, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge described Justice Reddy as considered one of India’s most distinguished and progressive jurists.

“He displays, absolutely, the values that formed our nation’s Freedom Motion so profoundly, and the values on which our nation’s Structure and democracy have been anchored. All these values are underneath assault and, subsequently, our collective and decided resolve to combat this election,” Kharge added.

Justice Reddy will contest towards the NDA’s nominee, C.P. Radhakrishnan, within the election scheduled for 9 September.

From Lokayukta to anti-CAA protest panel

Justice Reddy was appointed the primary Lokayukta of Goa, and assumed cost in March 2013. He was sworn within the presence of the then Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, a yr after the Bharatiya Janata Occasion-Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Occasion alliance defeated the incumbent Indian Nationwide Congress authorities.

By the way, when Justice Reddy was being sworn in because the Goa Lokayukta, opposition MLAs remained absent, as per reviews from the time. Whereas they didn’t formally boycott the ceremony, critics accused Justice Reddy of being a ‘sure man’ of CM Parrikar.

His appointment was challenged within the Bombay Excessive Court docket’s Goa bench, by social activist Aires Rodrigues, the spokesman of the entrance named ‘Collectively for Goa’, which included Congress, NCP, Shiv Sena and Goa Su-Raj Occasion members. However the petition was rejected, with the court docket ruling that there was no infirmity within the choice making course of.

Nevertheless, he resigned inside months, citing private causes.

In 2020, Justice Reddy was part of a individuals’s tribunal together with different retired judges, activists, docs and attorneys, that concluded that there had been an entire collapse of legislation and order in Uttar Pradesh, with the police motion on these peacefully protesting towards the Citizenship (Modification) Act. The tribunal additionally included retired Delhi Excessive Court docket decide, Justice A.P. Shah.

“The state of affairs in UP reveals an entire collapse of rule of legislation. In reality, the very state administration that’s charged with defending the rule of legislation is perpetrating violence upon its personal individuals,” the tribunal had reportedly concluded.

Salwa Judum to Ambani judgment

Justice Reddy delivered a number of landmark judgments throughout his tenure as a decide. Some of the outstanding is the 2011 judgment which he delivered together with Justice S.S. Nijjar, banning Salwa Judum, a government-sponsored vigilante motion to combat towards Naxals in Chhattisgarh.

Days earlier than his retirement in 2011, he had additionally criticised the then UPA authorities on the Centre for not “displaying seriousness” in bringing again black cash stored in financial institution accounts overseas. The bench, comprising Justices Reddy and Nijjar had then constituted a Particular Investigation Workforce (SIT) to take steps to carry again unaccounted cash to the nation.

Justice Reddy was additionally part of the bench which dominated in favour of Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries (RIL), ruling that it didn’t want to provide fuel to the corporate owned by estranged brother Anil Ambani at a beforehand agreed value underneath a household MoU. Justice Reddy delivered a separate opinion within the case, agreeing with the bulk view on a number of points, whereas disagreeing with it on one other difficulty.

In 2009, Justice Reddy headed the three-member panel that was constituted by then Vice President Hamid Ansari to look into the allegations towards former Calcutta Excessive Court docket decide Justice Soumitra Sen, after a movement of impeachment towards the latter was admitted within the Rajya Sabha.

Justice Reddy has been vocal after his retirement as effectively.

In 2018, he questioned the delay within the bifurcation of the Hyderabad Excessive Court docket regardless of 4 years passing for the reason that formation of the 2 states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

“I don’t perceive why the excessive court docket is just not bifurcated until date. Failure to ascertain separate excessive courts for Andhra Pradesh and Telangana is nothing however insulting to the individuals of the state and its attorneys,” he was quoted as saying on the time.

Extra just lately, Justice Reddy led the Impartial Skilled Working Group (IEWG) constituted by the Telangana authorities, which submitted its report on the state’s Social, Instructional, Financial, Employment, Political and Caste (SEEEPC) survey to Telangana CM A. Revanth Reddy final month.

He’s at the moment on the Board of Trustees of the Hyderabad-based Worldwide Arbitration and Mediation Centre (IAMC).

(Edited by Viny Mishra)

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