Two days after delivering a judgment against use of tribals as special police officers (SPOs) in anti-Maoist operations in Chhattisgarh, Supreme Court’s Justice B. Sudershan Reddy retired Thursday.
In his judgment directing the disarming of the SPOs, Justice Reddy gave words to his anguish on the state policy, saying that on “one hand the state subsidises the private sector, giving it tax break after tax break, while simultaneously citing lack of revenues as the primary reason for not fulfilling its obligations to provide adequate cover to the poor through social welfare measures”.
Justice Reddy, 65, said that while the state was accommodating the rich and the powerful, it sought to arm the youngsters amongst the poor with guns to combat the anger and unrest amongst the poor (arising out of their desperate conditions).Born July 8, 1946, Justice Reddy was elevated to the apex court Jan 12, 2007. Till then, he was the chief justice of the Gauhati High Court.
Six more apex court judges will retire in the next four months. Justice R.V. Raveendran will be the last of the six to retire Oct 15.
Others who will retire before him are Justice V.S. Sirpurkar Aug 22, Justice H.S. Bedi Sep 5, Justice Mukundakam Sharma Sep 18, Justice Markandey Katju Sep 20, and Justice J.M. Panchal Oct 6.
Though the sanctioned strength of apex court is 31 judges, including Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia, it is short of three judges.
