New Delhi: Former Supreme Court judge and Opposition vice-presidential candidate B Sudershan Reddy on Saturday responded to Home Minister Amit Shah’s criticism over the Salwa Judum verdict, saying he had merely authored the judgment, which was the decision of the top court and not an individual opinion.

Reddy, along with Justice S S Nijjar, was part of the Supreme Court bench that in July 2011 struck down Salwa Judum, ruling that arming tribal youth as Special Police Officers to combat Maoist insurgents was illegal and unconstitutional.

Shah, citing the verdict during a speech in Kerala on Friday, had alleged that Reddy “helped Naxalism” and claimed that Left Wing Extremism would have ended by 2020 had the judgment not been delivered.

Reddy, in an interview with PTI, said Shah’s remarks would not have been made had he gone through the entire ruling.

“I do not wish to join an issue directly with the Honourable Home Minister of India, whose constitutional duty and obligation is to protect the life, liberty and property of every citizen, irrespective of ideological differences. Secondly, I have authored the judgment. The judgment is not mine, the judgment is of the Supreme Court,” Reddy said.

He emphasised that another judge sat on the bench alongside him and that repeated attempts to overturn the verdict did not succeed.

“On merits of the judgment, I would not speak because I am trained by my peers that one should not speak about the greatness of one’s own judgment. It is for the people to judge. It is not my personal document. I wish the Honourable Home Minister could have himself read the whole judgment instead of getting briefed by, I do not know… he would not have that much time to read the judgment which runs into about 40 pages. If he would have read the judgment, perhaps he would not have made that comment. That’s all I say and leave it there,” he said.

Reddy added that he did not want to disturb the “decorum of the debate” by commenting further. “There must be decency in the debate,” he remarked.

At a public event in Kerala on Friday, Shah had said, “Sudershan Reddy is the person who helped Naxalism. He gave Salwa Judum judgment. If the Salwa Judum judgment had not been given, the Naxal terrorism would have ended by 2020. He is the person who was inspired by the ideology that gave Salwa Judam judgment.”