SC judge to Andhra Pradesh Governor: S Abdul Nazeer was part of Ayodhya, triple talaq cases

Born on January 5, 1958, Justice Nazeer was appointed a judge of the Karnataka High Court in 2003. In 2017, he was elevated to the Supreme Court. His direct elevation was justified by the Collegium as a move to include a judge from the minority community and ensure diversity on the Bench.

However, Justice Nazeer superseded several senior judges and the decision raised eyebrows in legal circles. A day before he was set to take the oath, his senior colleague from Karnataka High Court, Justice HG Ramesh, turned down the move to become the Chief Justice of the Madras High Court. “The Constitution of India doesn’t provide for reservation on the basis of religion or caste in the matter of appointment of judges to the high court and Supreme Court,” Justice Ramesh said in an unprecedented letter to then Chief Justice of India JS Khehar.

In his tenure of five years and 10 months in the Supreme Court, Justice Nazeer was part of several Benches that heard and decided significant cases. In the Ayodhya ruling, while Justice Nazeer was part of the five-judge unanimous verdict that decided the title dispute in the favour of Hindus, he had earlier dissented against the 4:1 majority view that refused to refer the issue to a larger Bench.

The Supreme Court had refused to reconsider the Ismail Farooqui ruling which held that the offering of prayers in a mosque is not an “essential feature” of Islam. Justice Nazeer’s opinion was the lone dissenting voice against this decision. He also was part of the 3:2 minority opinion in the 2017 triple talaq ruling in which he held that the practice was legally valid.

Justice Nazeer was also part of the 2017 landmark ruling that held the right to privacy to be a fundamental right and the 2021 ruling rejecting the pleas of telecom companies seeking re-calculation of the AGR dues demanded by the government. Just two days before his retirement, he was part of the verdict that cleared the Centre’s controversial demonetisation decision and was also part of the Constitution Bench which held that additional restrictions not found in Article 19(2) cannot be imposed on the right to free speech of ministers and legislators.

As a sitting judge of the Supreme Court, in December 2021 Justice Nazeer addressed the 16th National Council meeting of the Akhil Bharatiya Adhivakta Parishad, a lawyers’ body affiliated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. He spoke on the “Decolonisation of the Indian Legal System”.