PanajiAugust 19, 2025 08:46 PM IST
First published on: Aug 19, 2025 at 08:45 PM IST
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Two years after he retired, former Supreme Court judge B Sudershan Reddy was appointed Goa’s first Lokayukta in 2013. However, the Opposition INDIA bloc’s Vice-Presidential candidate immediately ran into opposition from the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) that claimed he had been handpicked by BJP CM Manohar Parrikar to be his “yes man” and alleged his appointment violated the law.
On March 16, as he prepared to take the oath as the coastal state’s ombudsman, a group of protesters, including workers of the Congress and the NCP, waved “black flags” at a public demonstration near the Raj Bhavan. Before the 2012 Assembly elections, Parrikar had promised to appoint a Lokayukta within 100 days of coming to power and assured that all the corruption cases linked to an alleged illegal mining scam would be referred to the Lokayukta.
After being sworn in, the former SC judge said he would do everything possible to “erase corruption” in the state. “I shall, to the best of my ability, try to serve the people of Goa through the judicial process for which I have spent 42 years of my life … without any ill will or without any affection … of course without any fear,” he told reporters at the Raj Bhavan.
Soon afterwards, social activist and lawyer Aires Rodrigues challenged his appointment in the High Court of Bombay at Goa. Following the INDIA bloc’s decision to nominate Reddy for the high constitutional office, Rodrigues told The Indian Express, “I had moved the High Court since Justice Reddy’s selection was not done in a transparent manner or in accordance with law. Finally, the manner in which he left Goa proved that he lacked probity and accountability in public life.”
The High Court rejected the petition and held there was no infirmity in the decision-making process that led to Justice Reddy’s appointment. The former judge’s stint as the Lokayukta was short-lived as he resigned after seven months, citing personal reasons.
During his tenure, the Lokayukta received complaints about an alleged illegal mining scam. The case dates back to the Congress-led government’s tenure in Goa between 2007 and 2012. A Centre-appointed Commission of Inquiry, headed by Justice M B Shah, said in a report that the government allegedly illegally “condoned” delays in applications for the renewal of mining leases in Goa and that several bureaucrats and officials of mining companies were involved in the alleged scam.
In 2013, under Parrikar, a Special Investigation Team was appointed to probe the alleged illegalities and fix criminal liability of those involved based on the Commission’s findings.
During Justice Reddy’s tenure, the Lokayukta was also probing a recruitment-related scam related to irregularities in the hiring process in the state health department.