HT Digital,
New Delhi, Nov 23: Justice Fathima Beevi, the first woman judge of the Supreme Court, passed away at a private hospital in Kerala’s Kollam at the age of 96 on Thursday.
She had also served as the governor of Tamil Nadu from 1997 to 2001 and had resigned after rejecting the mercy petitions filed by the four condemned prisoners in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.
Beevi began her legal career at the Kollam district court in 1950 after graduating as a gold medalist in her LLB batch. She joined the judicial service as a magistrate eight years later and became the district sessions judge in 1974.
In 1983, she was appointed as a judge of the Kerala High Court and was elevated to a judge of the Supreme Court in 1989.
After retiring from the Supreme Court in 1993, she served as a member of the National Human Rights Commission and also as the Tamil Nadu governor. Her appointment as the first woman judge of the Supreme Court inspired a generation of women to pursue legal studies.
