Justice Dama Seshadri Naidu who resigned as a judge of the Bombay High Court in August 2021 owing to personal reasons, has donned the lawyer's robes for a second innings at the Bar.
Naidu appeared before the Supreme Court Bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and BV Nagarathna on Monday, his first case as a lawyer after his resignation as judge.
The case was an appeal against a September 17 order of the Andhra Pradesh High Court.
Though Supreme Court stated that it would not entertain the appeal since the case is against an "interim order", Justice DY Chandrachud expressed inclination to hear the former judge.
"Yes we want to hear Mr. Naidu in his debut case after being at the bench. Please argue Mr Naidu," said Justice Chandrachud.
When Advocate Naidu faced technical snags at his end, he informed the bench, "I am still sorting out the technical things."
Senior Advocate KV Viswanathan and advocate Amit Pai appeared along with Naidu.
Naidu was born in 1962 in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh.
He obtained law degree from Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupathi and enrolled at the Bar in March, 1997. He practiced before the High Court of Andhra Pradesh and before the civil and criminal courts in Hyderabad.
He was appointed judge of Andhra Pradesh High Court and also served as judge of Kerala High Court before he was transferred to Bombay High Court in March 2019.
Naidu is not the first person to resign as High Court judge to return to practice.
Senior Advocates PS Patwalia, V Giri and Neeraj Kishan Kaul all Supreme Court practitioners, had resigned as High Court judges to return to law practice.
Patwalia, a judge of Punjab and Haryana High Court had resigned in 2006.
Giri, a judge of Kerala High Court had resigned in 2009 after two years at the Bench to pursue legal practice before the Supreme Court.
Neeraj Kishan Kaul of the Delhi High Court had also stepped down in 2009 to pursue private practice.
In 2007, Bangalore based Senior Advocate, Ravi B Naik was appointed as a judge in the Karnataka High Court. In 2008, he stepped down and continued with his practice.