Kochi: Supreme Court of India’s first woman judge M Fathima Beevi, 96, died at Kollam today, media reports said.
She was also the first Muslim woman judge to be appointed to any higher judiciary in the country.
Justice Fathima Beevi was born on April 30, 1927, in Pathanamthitta in Kerala.
She studied at Town School and Catholicate High School, Pathanamthitta and completed her graduation in Chemistry from University College, Thiruvananthapuram.
Encouraged by her father, she studied law at Government Law College, Thiruvananthapuram. She topped the Bar Council exam in 1950 and became the first woman to receive a Bar Council gold medal.
She began her career as a lawyer before becoming district and sessions judge in 1974. She joined the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal 1980 and later got appointed as a High Court judge in 1983.
In 1989, She became the first woman judge in the Supreme Court of India in 1989 till her retirement on April 29, 1992.
Later, she served as a member of the National Human Rights Commission and later became Governor of Tami lNadu, the reports said.
Photo credit : Facebook
