Suredran K Patel | Photo:facebook.com/Surendran K. Pattel
Kanhangad: A Malayali lawyer has been appointed as district judge in Texas, United States. Surendran K Patel, who arrived in his native Kasaragod after being appointed as the judge at the 240th district court in the Texas state, shared his arduous journey of his ascent to a judge’s chair in the US.
His poverty-stricken childhood had urged Surendran to make and sell beedis after school time and pursue works on construction sites and hotels during college days. The judge shared his bitter early life experiences while addressing the felicitation ceremony organised under the Hosdurg Bar association.
Surendran said that he first started to make beedis while studying in the ninth standard. Soon after finishing tenth standard with meagre score, he spent the next year as a full-time beedi worker. Later, he joined pre-degree course at Elerithattu college and degree at Payyannur college. He managed to find a job in a hotel while studying LLB at Kozhikode Law College and went to work after college time.
Following the course, he worked as a junior in the office of Adv Appukuttan. He married Shubha, who was a nurse during this period, and later shifted his job to New Delhi after Shubha secured a job there.
He could practice in the Supreme Court also. When Shubha got a job in the US and moved from India, he also accompanied her and worked in a grocery store. Meanwhile, he attended the examination for a lawyer’s licence. After securing the licence, he pursued LLM in the US.
The district judges are chosen via an election in USA. He could defeat the sitting judge in the first round of the election itself. Surendran is the first and only Malayali district judge in the USA.
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