HYDERABAD, July 25: A judge fighting his own case for 46 years went right up to the Supreme Court for justice, which finally delivered a judgement in his favour two years after his death.

Mominuddin, a retired sessions judge, spent a lifetime visiting courts till he died in 1994 at the age of 100. Mominuddin had filed a suit in the city civil court in 1951, challenging a government decision removing him from service on July 21, 1949.

The second civil court delivered its judgement in his favour but the state government successfully appealed against it in the Andhra Pradesh High Court (HC) in 1964. Mominuddin then went to the SC, challenging the HC decision. The apex court concurred with the judgement of the city civil court, favouring the judge and ordered the state government to pay Rs 900 per month as salary.

The state government then referred his case to the Administrative Tribunal, while Mominuddin contended that the tribunal had no jurisdiction to hear the cases of judicial employees. The tribunal advised the government to reconsider the matter as the case had been pending for the past 30 years. But the government chose to ignore their suggestion.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.