Justice Nagarjuna Reddy retires
Justice C.V. Nagarjuna Reddy, who is known to take an optimistic view of the gloomiest of matters while dispensing justice, has retired on Tuesday. The Bar and Bench extended a warm farewell to Justice Reddy.
Justice Reddy has been dispensing justice for more than 12 years. He made his mark with precise judgments which reflected clarity of thought
He was known for bravery in his judgments as he spoke eloquently through them and his intellectual insight was evident as he applied various laws to reiterate the fairness principle.
Justice Nagarjuna Reddy was in the headlines during the Telangana agitation when he resigned to protest the violence in the HC premises. His resignation, however, was not accepted.
As a lawyer, he was known for acumen in civil and public law. His contribution to criminal jurisprudence was best reflected in the Ayesha Mira case, where he concluded that the convict was falsely implicated in the case by the police. The basic principle of criminal law – ‘proof beyond reasonable doubt’ – was thus admirably upheld.
In the case of the barbaric rape and murder of a five-year-old child; he
ruled that the lower court should have imposed capital punishment.
Bidding farewell to his colleague, Chief Justice Thottathil B. Radhakrishnan said that Justice Reddy gave valuable service to the judiciary and during his tenure had delivered 43,000 judgments and disposed of 53,550 miscellaneous cases.
Justice Radhakrishnan said that Justice Reddy maintained values in his judgments and also introduced several innovations in the functioning of the judicial academy.
In his thanksgiving speech, Justice Reddy said his never-compromising attitude got him into trouble several times and he was ending his career without any spot on his reputation though there was a conspiracy to unseat him from the post of judge. After eight years of service as a judge, he had offered his resignation and the person who had hatched the conspiracy had given him the chance to choose his path and he had opted for the path with thorns.
He expressed his gratitude to all the judges and advocates and staff who had cooperated during his tenure and announced `5 lakh as donation to each of the two advocates’ associations, the AP and the TS Advocates Association.