New Delhi/Hyderabad: In March 2013, as former Supreme Court judge Justice B. Sudershan Reddy was being sworn in as the first Lokayukta of Goa, opposition leaders from the Congress and NCP protested on the road leading to Raj Bhavan, where the ceremony was being held.
Cut to 2025, and opposition leaders from the same parties have selected the same former judge as their vice-presidential candidate, following the resignation of Jagdeep Dhankhar.
Justice Reddy was born on 8 July 1946 in a family of farmers. His native village is Akulamailaram, near Hyderabad, in Telangana’s Rangareddy district. He got a degree in law from the Osmania University and enrolled as an advocate with the Bar Council of Andhra Pradesh in Hyderabad in December 1971.
He was appointed a permanent judge of the Andhra Pradesh High Court in May 1995, and was Chief Justice of the Gauhati High Court in December 2005. He was elevated to the Supreme Court in January 2007, and retired in July 2011.
Former Supreme Court judge Justice M.B. Lokur describes him as “warm-hearted” and a “no-nonsense person”.
A lawyer, who worked with Justice Reddy in Hyderabad, recalled how Justice Reddy would always personally see him out each time the lawyer visited his house. “This is a small but telling gesture, showing his graciousness and genuine character,” the lawyer told ThePrint on condition of anonymity.
Announcing Justice Reddy’s candidature, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge described Justice Reddy as one of India’s most distinguished and progressive jurists.
“He reflects, fully, the values that shaped our country’s Freedom Movement so profoundly, and the values on which our country’s Constitution and democracy have been anchored. All these values are under assault and, therefore, our collective and determined resolve to fight this election,” Kharge added.
Justice Reddy will contest against the NDA’s nominee, C.P. Radhakrishnan, in the election scheduled for 9 September.
From Lokayukta to anti-CAA protest panel
Justice Reddy was appointed the first Lokayukta of Goa, and assumed charge in March 2013. He was sworn in the presence of the then Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, a year after the Bharatiya Janata Party-Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party alliance defeated the incumbent Indian National Congress government.
Incidentally, when Justice Reddy was being sworn in as the Goa Lokayukta, opposition MLAs remained absent, as per reports from the time. While they did not formally boycott the ceremony, critics accused Justice Reddy of being a ‘yes man’ of CM Parrikar.
His appointment was challenged in the Bombay High Court’s Goa bench, by social activist Aires Rodrigues, the spokesman of the front named ‘Together for Goa’, which included Congress, NCP, Shiv Sena and Goa Su-Raj Party members. But the petition was rejected, with the court ruling that there was no infirmity in the decision making process.
However, he resigned within months, citing personal reasons.
In 2020, Justice Reddy was a part of a people’s tribunal along with other retired judges, activists, doctors and lawyers, that concluded that there had been a complete collapse of law and order in Uttar Pradesh, with the police action on those peacefully protesting against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. The tribunal also included retired Delhi High Court judge, Justice A.P. Shah.
“The state of affairs in UP shows a complete collapse of rule of law. In fact, the very state administration that is charged with protecting the rule of law is perpetrating violence upon its own people,” the tribunal had reportedly concluded.
Salwa Judum to Ambani judgment
Justice Reddy delivered several landmark judgments during his tenure as a judge. One of the most prominent is the 2011 judgment which he delivered along with Justice S.S. Nijjar, banning Salwa Judum, a government-sponsored vigilante movement to fight against Naxals in Chhattisgarh.
Days before his retirement in 2011, he had also criticised the then UPA government at the Centre for not “showing seriousness” in bringing back black money kept in bank accounts abroad. The bench, comprising Justices Reddy and Nijjar had then constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to take steps to bring back unaccounted money to the country.
Justice Reddy was also a part of the bench which ruled in favour of Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries (RIL), ruling that it did not need to supply gas to the company owned by estranged brother Anil Ambani at a previously agreed price under a family MoU. Justice Reddy delivered a separate opinion in the case, agreeing with the majority view on a few aspects, while disagreeing with it on another issue.
In 2009, Justice Reddy headed the three-member panel that was constituted by then Vice President Hamid Ansari to look into the allegations against former Calcutta High Court judge Justice Soumitra Sen, after a motion of impeachment against the latter was admitted in the Rajya Sabha.
Justice Reddy has been vocal after his retirement as well.
In 2018, he questioned the delay in the bifurcation of the Hyderabad High Court despite four years passing since the formation of the two states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
“I do not understand why the high court is not bifurcated till date. Failure to establish separate high courts for Andhra Pradesh and Telangana is nothing but insulting to the people of the state and its lawyers,” he was quoted as saying at the time.
More recently, Justice Reddy led the Independent Expert Working Group (IEWG) constituted by the Telangana government, which submitted its report on the state’s Social, Educational, Economic, Employment, Political and Caste (SEEEPC) survey to Telangana CM A. Revanth Reddy last month.
He is currently on the Board of Trustees of the Hyderabad-based International Arbitration and Mediation Centre (IAMC).
(Edited by Viny Mishra)