Justice S Abdul Nazeer of Ayodhya verdict retires

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 4

Justice S Abdul Nazeer of the Supreme Court — who was part of the consensus verdict in the Ayodhya dispute and headed the Constitution Bench that delivered verdicts on demonetisation and scope and ambit of free speech of public functionaries — demitted office on Wednesday.

Born on January 5, 1958, Justice Nazeer was enrolled as an advocate on February 18, 1983 and practised in the Karnataka High Court where he was appointed as an additional Judge on May 12, 2003. He became a permanent judge on September 24, 2004, and was elevated to the Supreme Court of India on February 17, 2017.

Always stood for righteousness

Justice Nazeer always stood for what was right. We worked together during the adjudication of Ayodhya dispute in November 2019. —Justice DY Chandrachud, CJI

Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud praised him as a judge who always stood for what was right and worked together with him and other judges on the Bench during the adjudication of Ayodhya dispute in November 2019.

"He is simple to the core. Until recently. his only IDs were driving license and judges ID. His passport was made in 2019 and he said that the first stamp on that passport was when he travelled to Moscow a few weeks ago,” the CJI said, much to the surprise of the audience.

The Supreme Court had on November 9, 2019, paved the way for construction of a Ram Temple at Ayodhya as a five-judge Bench headed by the then CJI Ranjan Gogoi unanimously decreed the decades-old title dispute in favour of Ram Lalla. However, it also partly decreed the Sunni Central Waqf Board’s suit and ordered the allotment of alternate land measuring five acre to the Muslims for the construction of a mosque and associated activities within the city of Ayodhya. Justice Chandrachud was also on the Bench.

Speaking at a farewell function organised by the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) to give him a warm send off, Justice Nazeer said the state of affairs in the Indian judiciary was not as grim as it used to be and that a wrong image was being created due to misinformation.

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