Senior Counsel Habibullah Badsha, a highly respected lawyer who turned down offers to be elevated directly as a judge of the Supreme Court in 1986 and that of the High Court in 1970, died here on Wednesday at the age of 84. He is survived by wife Shyamala Badsha, son Abdul Jabbar Suhail and daughters Umeirah and Maimoona Badsha.
Though Mr. Badsha preferred to remain a lawyer all his life, many of the junior advocates attached to his office went on to become judges. Notable among them are Justice R. Sudhakar, now a judge of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court; Justice N. Kirubakaran of the Madras High Court and Justice G.M. Akbar Ali (since retired) of the same court.
The incumbent Additional Advocate-General C. Manishankar was also Mr. Badsha’s junior. People close to him recall that he was born in an affluent family in Chennai on March 8, 1933 and was educated at premier schools in the city. He pursued graduation in Islamic Studies and obtained a law degree from Madras Law College before enrolling with the Bar Council in 1957.
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He fell in love with his college mate, a Hindu, hailing from a royal family at Kalahasti in Andhra Pradesh, when she contested against him in the student elections at Presidency College here and later married her. In 1967, he was appointed as Central Government standing counsel and turned down judgeship at the age of 37.
During Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s regime in 1974, he was made the State Public Prosecutor and in 1987, the then Chief Minister M.G. Ramachandran appointed him as Special Public Prosecutor to conduct a case related to burning down of copies of the Constitution by 10 DMK MLAs during the party’s anti-Hindi agitation.
In 1991, he was appointed as Advocate-General and refused a similar offer made by DMK president M. Karunanithi in 1996 citing health reasons.
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Mr. Badsha was actively involved in the development of various educational institutions and had been a counsel for Music Academy besides being a founder-director of Apollo Hospitals.
Condoling his death, the chairman of the hospitals, Prathap C. Reddy said: “Mr. Habibullah Badsha... served our board with great commitment and dedication. His immense knowledge and skills have been recognised by people within and outside the company. To me, he was a great support and an excellent advisor with deep knowledge of his profession.”