He held the position of Speaker of the Parliament from 1954 to 1957, and became Chief Judge in 1964. In 1966, he resigned from the court in protest of the government's refusal to reinstate the Sudanese Communist Party, which the court had held to be unconstitutionally banned from parliament. After 1972, he moved to Egypt, and later Dublin, Ireland, where he lived until his death. He turned 100 in March 2017.