From farmer's son to SC judge: Oppn's VP candidate Sudershan Reddy rose through ranks

New Delhi: After upholding the Constitution first as a jurist and then as a Supreme Court judge, Opposition’s vice presidential candidate B Sudershan Reddy sought to continue his battle this time by protecting it.

However, he lost the vice presidential election, which he fought as an ideological battle, to NDA’s C P Radhakrishnan on Tuesday.

Soft-spoken Reddy upheld the dignity of the contest for the country’s second highest constitutional position as he did not say anything against his opponent.

Reddy had said he all along worked towards upholding the Constitution and this journey continues even today.

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Early in life, Reddy came under the influence of socialist thinkers, particularly late Rammanohar Lohia and later he actively participated in the movement led by Jayaprakash Narayan.

The Opposition considered him as one who belonged to the rare breed of jurists who saw the Constitution as providing a blueprint for upliftment of India’s poorest and most deprived, and how the State should use its powers best to attain that goal.

Reddy’s friends feel his judgments marked a sharp departure from pedantic legalism towards a transformative constitutionalism.

Born on July 8, 1946 in an agricultural family in Akula Mylaram village of Rangareddy district in present Telangana, Justice B Sudershan Reddy (retd) had his primary education in neighbouring villages as there was no school in his native village.

Graduated in Arts and Law from Osmania University, he enrolled as an advocate with the Bar Council of Andhra Pradesh in 1971.

Reddy was government pleader in the high court during 1988-90 and also worked as additional standing counsel for the Central government for a short period in 1990. Osmania University appointed him legal advisor and standing counsel from 1992 till his elevation as a permanent judge of the High Court of Andhra Pradesh.

Justice Reddy served as secretary and as well as president of the Andhra Pradesh High Court Advocates Association before being appointed as a permanent judge of the Andhra Pradesh High Court in 1995.

After a decade of eventful service on the Bench, he was elevated as Chief Justice of the Guwahati High Court in 2005. He was appointed as the judge, Supreme Court of India in January 2007.

Apart from being one of the articulate and erudite judges of the Supreme Court, Reddy’s admirers said he maintained a judicial demeanour with equanimity and he listened patiently and attentively, interjecting purposefully.

They said he not only made contributions to the law but also stirred serious debate about where the Indian polity is heading.

His understanding of the Constitution was not limited to its function as a document, which was merely supposed to check the arbitrary use of state power, but extends to a broader idea of justice that enables curbing of injustice in all its complexity, they claimed.

Reddy was well known for rendering several landmark judgments upholding the principles of Constitution and social justice in the country.

In one of his judgments, while dealing with the power of the government to deal with the public property observed that “there is nothing like a Government property. It is a public property of which the Government as a day is only a trustee. The public properties cannot be parted away by the Government in its discretion as it pleases.”

Reddy, however, came under attack from none other than Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who accused him of “supporting” Naxalism and said that had he not been there, Left Wing extremism would have ended by 2020.

In July 2011, he was part of a bench that ordered disbanding of Salwa Judum, ruling that using tribal youths as Special Police Officers in the fight against Maoist insurgents was illegal and unconstitutional.

In yet another landmark judgment, Justice Reddy criticized the Union government for its slackness in probing black money cases.

Expressing his strong reservations about the government’s efforts to deal with black money issue, Reddy constituted a Special Investigation Team to investigate into unaccounted moneys unlawfully kept in bank accounts abroad.

Reddy is presently associated with various educational institutions including Andhra Vidyalaya Educational Society and the Hyderabad Mahila Vidyalaya Sangham as its President.

Justice Reddy continues to be a serious student of Constitutional law and social sciences.

He had also faced accusations from the Congress in 2013 as being then Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar’s “yes man” when he was appointed as the first Lokayukta of the western state.

Congress and NCP leaders had protested against Reddy’s appointment when he took oath as Goa’s first Lokayukta on March 13, 2013. Reddy, however, quit the post within six months, citing personal reasons.

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