India’s first woman Supreme Court judge, Justice Fathima Beevi passes away at 96

Digital Desk: Justice M. Fathima Beevi, the first woman nominated to India's Supreme Court, died on Thursday at the age of 96. She was also the first Muslim woman appointed to any higher court.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court, which was established on January 26, 1950, has selected only eight female judges in its 71-year history, beginning with M Fathima Beevi in 1989.

M. Fathima Beevi was born in Kerala on April 30, 1927, and her father urged her to study law. She topped the Bar Council exam in 1950, becoming the first woman to obtain a gold medal from the Bar Council.

She began her legal career as a lawyer in Kerala and rose through the ranks to become a district and session judge in 1974. She joined the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal in 1980 and was promoted to the High Court in 1983.

She made history when she became the first woman to be appointed to the Supreme Court in 1989, a position she held until her retirement on April 29, 1992. She served as a member of the National Human Rights Commission after retiring, before being appointed Governor of Tamil Nadu.

She resigned as Governor of Tamil Nadu after rejecting compassion applications filed by four convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.