MANGALURU: Supreme Court retired judge Justice S Abdul Nazeer, who hails from Beluvai in Moodbidri located 41 km from Mangaluru, has been appointed as the third Governor of Andhra Pradesh by President Droupadi Murmu on Saturday.
Born on January 5, 1958, the 65-year-old hails from a humble background and completed his graduation in commerce from Mahaveera College in Moodbidri. He obtained a law degree from SDM Law College, Mangaluru in 1981 and enrolled as an advocate in 1983. He was appointed as a permanent judge of the Karnataka High Court in 2004.
His friends say that Justice Nazeer was a hardworking person who did part-time jobs to complete his education. “I was a batchmate of Justice Nazeer in LLB degree. We had classes for two hours in the morning and one hour in the evening. He was very quiet in the class. He hailed from a poor economic background and he did not depend on anyone. He did part-time jobs related to accounts, including at a hotel... this helped him in his education. He started his profession under MK Vijay Kumar in Karkala and then he shifted to Bengaluru and Justice Vishwanath Shetty was his main support. He was a man of simplicity,” said advocate Kallige Taranath Shetty, former president of Mangaluru Bar Association.
Justice Nazeer and his wife loved animals and they had several dogs and cats as pets at their residence even during his tenure as a Supreme Court judge. “His wife even carried their pets both dogs and cats, in a train to New Delhi after he was appointed as SC judge,” said Taranath Shetty. His close friends say Justice Nazeer was upset when he lost his mother and brother recently. They opined that he worked in favour of getting the best of the infrastructure to bar associations of every taluk in Dakshina Kannada.
Justice Nazeer, who retired on January 4 this year, will succeed Biswa Bhusan Harichandan as the Governor of Andhra Pradesh. Justice Nazeer was part of the Constitutional Bench that heard the Ayodhya land dispute land case and was also part of several other landmark judgments. He was part of the Triple Talaq case for which he even received threats and has been given Z-Plus security. He was also part of the demonetisation case.