Fathima Beevi, India’s first woman supreme court judge passed away at 96. She was a trailblazer in the profession of Indian law. About 8 women have served as judges in the Supreme court with Fathima Beevi becoming the first in 1989. She is also the first Muslim women to serve as a Supreme Court Judge.
Justice Fathima Beevi’s Early Life and Career
She was born in 1927 in Pathanamthitta, kingdom of Travancore and went on to get a degree in Chemistry. Later, she pursued law after being inspired by Anna Chandy, the first woman judicial officer in the Travancore state. She was the first woman to pass the bar council with a gold medal.
She began her career as a lawyer in Kerala and worked her way up to become a district and sessions judge in 1974. In 1980, she joined the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal and became a High Court judge in 1983.
In 1989, she made history as the first woman appointed to the Supreme Court, where she served until she retired on April 29, 1992. After retiring, she worked as a member of the National Human Rights Commission and later became the Governor of Tamil Nadu.
She resigned from the Governor position after rejecting the pleas for mercy from four prisoners involved in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.
While holding the position of the state’s Governor, she additionally took on the role of Chancellor at Madras University. She also served as the Chairman of the Kerala Commission for Backward Classes in 1993 and became a member of the National Human Rights Commission in the same year. Her contributions were recognized with an Honorary Doctor of Letters (Hon. D. Litt.) and the Mahila Shiromani Award in 1990. Furthermore, she received the Bharat Jyoti Award.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan expressed his condolences at the loss of Justice Beevi and noted that her life was one of the remarkable chapters of women’s empowerment in Kerala.
