The President of India has appointed former Supreme Court judge Justice S Abdul Nazeer as the Governor of Andhra Pradesh.
The incumbent Governor of Andhra Pradesh Biswa Bhusan Harichandan has been transferred as the Governor of Chhattisgarh.
Justice Nazeer retired on January 4, 2023.
Former SC Judge Abdul Nazeer who was in the bench that gave Babri Masjid land to those who illegally & lumpenly demolished it, is appointed Governor Of Andhra Pradesh.
Oh my lord!https://t.co/f4y97idviL https://t.co/f4y97idviL— Prashant Bhushan (@pbhushan1) February 12, 2023
Justice Nazeer was elevated to the Supreme Court in February 2017 from the Karnataka High Court. In the Supreme Court, he was part of prominent judgments in the KS Puttaswamy case (which held right to privacy a fundamental right), triple talaq case(dissented to hold the practice as valid), Ayodhya-Babri Masjid dispute(part of the unanimous verdict allowing construction of Ram Mandir at the disputed place), demonetization case (led the Constitution Bench which upheld the note-ban decision as valid). He also led 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
‘Live Law reported that the last instance of a Supreme Court judge being appointed as a Governor was the appointment of former Chief Justice of India P Sathasivam as the Governor of Kerala in 2014. Former Supreme Court judge Justice Fatima Beevi was the Governor of Tamil Nadu during 1997-2001, after her retirement as a Supreme Court judge in 1992.
