Nitte Santosh Hegde is a former judge of the Supreme Court of India, former Solicitor General of India and was Lokayukta (ombudsman) for Karnataka State of India from 2006 to 2011.
Santosh Hegde was born in a Tulu-speaking Bunt family to former judge of Supreme Court, Justice K. S. Hegde and his wife Meenakshi Hegde (née Adyanthaya). He is one of six children born to the couple. He was born on 16 June 1940 in Nitte, Udupi district, Karnataka. He had his early education at St. Aloysius College, Mangalore and Madras Christian College in Madras. He completed his intermediate exam from St. Joseph’s College, Bangalore and BSc degree from Central College of Bangalore. Hegde graduated with a law degree from Government Law College (now known as University Law College), Bangalore in 1965.
After completing apprenticeship training, Hegde enrolled as an advocate in January 1966 and was designated as senior advocate in May 1984. He was appointed the Advocate General for the state of Karnataka in February 1984 and held that position till August 1988. He worked as additional Solicitor General of the union of India from December 1989 to November 1990 and was re-appointed the Solicitor General of India on 25 April 1998. Nitte Santosh Hegde was appointed a judge of Supreme Court of India on 8 January 1999. He retired as judge of Supreme Court of India in June 2005. He was conferred honorary doctorate of law degree by Mangalore University in 2005. For a brief period he worked as Chairperson of Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate Tribunal, New Delhi. Hegde was of the view that Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) was not the authority for dispute resolution between customers and telecommunication service providers. He was appointed Lokayukta of Karnataka state on 3 August 2006 for a term of five years.
He retired as Lokayukta of Karnataka on 2 August 2011. Subsequently, he joined the anti-corruption movement launched by Anna Hazare in 2011 as a core member of Team Anna. In August 2012, he left Team Anna and refused to be part of it after the team decided to go political.
