Vijayawada: In a significant appointment, retired Supreme Court Judge, Justice Syed Abdul Nazeer, was on Sunday named as the Governor of Andhra Pradesh. Justice Nazeer, who was part of the Ayodhya case verdict in 2019, had retired from the apex court only last month.
Rashtrapathi Droupadi Murmu appointed chief justices for four high courts through a presidential notification. Accordingly, present AP governor Biswa Bhusan Harichandan was made the governor of Chhattisgarh.
Harichandan had taken charge as the second governor of the residuary AP state on July 24, 2019. Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy and the governor maintained cordial relations that helped in the smooth functioning of the state government.
Justice Abdul Nazeer hails from a family in the Kanara region of coastal Karnataka. He is the son of Fakir Saheb and has five siblings. He grew up in Beluvai/Moodbidri and completed his B.Com degree at Mahaveera College, Moodbidri. He obtained a law degree from SDM Law College, Kodialbail, Mangaluru.
Nazeer enrolled as an advocate in 1983 and practised at the Karnataka high court in Bengaluru. In May 2003, he became an additional judge of the high court and was later made a permanent judge there. In February 2017, he was elevated to the Supreme Court. He was the third judge ever to be elevated this way, without first becoming the chief justice of a high court.
At the Supreme Court, Justice Nazeer was the lone Muslim judge in a multi-faith bench which heard the controversial Triple Talaq case in 2017. Nazeer and another judge upheld the validity of the practice of Triple Talaq (Talaq-e-Biddat) by citing the ground that this was permissible under Muslim Sharia Law. However, the practice was barred by the bench by a 3:2 line-up and asked the central government to bring legislation in six months to govern acts of marriage and divorce in the Muslim community.
The court said till the government formulated law regarding triple talaq, there would be an injunction on husbands pronouncing triple talaq on their wives.
Justice Nazeer was also a part of the 5- judge bench that passed the historic Supreme Court verdict on Ayodhya dispute in 2019. In this, he had upheld the report of ASI, which confirmed the existence of a Hindu structure in the disputed place. He gave the verdict in favour of Ram Mandir, finally ending the years-long dispute with a unanimous 5-0 verdict.
In the months leading up to his retirement, Justice Nazeer led a constitution bench that heard cases pertaining to the 2016 high value currency demonetisation. He retired on Jan 4, 2023.
While the shifting of Harichandan from AP to Chhattisgarh was guided by the interests of the Centre, a fact was also that the main Opposition, Telugu Desam, had accused him of a failure to respond to incidents of “human rights violations” etc. TD chief Chandrababu Naidu had met Harichandan several times and submitted complaints of YSRC-inspired attacks on his party leaders and cadres.
Harichandan took charge in AP after Jagan Reddy assumed charge as chief minister. He is likely to be relieved from post in a day or two.
Harichandan joined the Bharatiya Jana Sangh in 1971 and became its national executive member and state general secretary until the formation of the Janata Party in 1977.
During the Emergency, he was detained under the MISA. He was made the president of the state BJP until 1988 and there was a period when he joined hands with the Janata Dal. He returned to the BJP in 1996.
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