Justice Fathima Beevi, the first woman judge of the Supreme Court, died at a private hospital in Kerala’s Kollam on Thursday. She was 96.
Her appointment as the first woman judge of the Supreme Court had inspired women to pursue the legal profession and had been always considered a role model for gender justice.
Justice Beevi had also served as the governor of Tamil Nadu from 1997 to 2001. She had quit as the Tamil Nadu governor after rejecting the mercy petitions filed by four condemned prisoners in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.
Born in Pathanamthitta in 1927, she completed her graduation in Chemistry from Women’s College in Thiruvananthapuram and studied LLB at a government law college in Thiruvananthapuram.
A gold medallist in her batch of LLB, Beevi started her legal profession at Kollam district court in 1950. After eight years, she joined the judicial service as a magistrate and went on to become the district sessions judge in 1974.
Beevi was appointed as a judge of the Kerala High Court in 1983 and was elevated to a judge of the Supreme Court in 1989.
After retiring from the apex court in 1993, she served as a member of the National Human Rights Commission and also as the governor of Tamil Nadu.
