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Committed to justice

PRO-COMMON MAN N. Vidya Prasad Photo: C.V. Subrahmanyam

"A judge should be committed and transparent in his work, as he is answerable to society." This is the considered view of the District and Sessions Judge N. Vidya Prasad on how a judge should function.

Born and brought and brought up in Ongole, he hails from a family of lawyers. His father was a leading practitioner and so are his two brothers. After his graduation from the Andhra Loyola College in Vijayawada, he completed his bachelor in law from Andhra University.

"From 1968 to 1976 I practised law as an advocate with my father in Ongole. In 1976 I joined the judicial services as district munsiff, in 1984 I was elevated as subordinate judge and in 1991 I had become the District Judge."

As District Judge he served in various districts like Warangal, Rangareddy and Nalgonda before the Vizag posting. He was also the president of the AP Judicial Officers Association from 1995 to 2002.

Loves teaching

Apart from giving judgments, Mr. Vidya Prasad loves teaching. He would not miss the slightest opportunity to teach a few finer points of the profession to young and upcoming lawyers. He is enrolled as a faculty of the AP Judicial Academy and has served as a visiting faculty at the Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy. Mr. Vidya Prasad has also contributed over 200 articles covering various aspects of law to a number of newspapers and magazines.

Focus on common man

He was greatly influenced by the common man theory of the former Chief Justice of Andhra Pradesh P.A. Chowdhury. "I believe in the theory that laws should be twisted to benefit the common man. All through my career I have always stood for the common man and the economically deprived masses," he says with understandable pride.

Landmark judgment

Though he accounted for hundreds of judgment pertaining to various cases in a career spanning over two-and-a-half decades he rates the palm oil case in Nellore and the Vangaveti Ranga murder case in Vijayawada as his landmark judgments. "In both the cases there were lots of twists and turns and high political pressures, but I kept my cool to work within the framework to give good judgments."

Equal opportunity

According to Mr. Vidya Prasad, each one should be given an equal hearing. "None should be convicted unheard. Though I do not advocate the use of capital punishment a convict should be given adequate punishment. No mercy should be shown in that respect and that applies even to the rarest of rare cases also. In today's context if reformation is the buzzword, then death penalty does not hold good."

Mr. Vidya Prasad has always been in favour of strengthening the court's infrastructure and work culture. "Immediately on taking over as the District Judge I saw that the work is equally distributed and the infrastructure strengthened. Today a judgment copy would be handed over to the party the very next day itself. The offices are automated and things move faster unlike in the earlier days."

S.B.

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