Justice Fathima Beevi, India's first female Supreme Court judge passes away

India's first female Supreme Court judge Justice M Fathima Beevi passed away at the age of 96. She died on Thursday. Justice Fathima was undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Kollam.

For those unaware, she was appointed as the first female judge to the Supreme Court in 1989. Other than this, she was also the first Muslim woman who was appointed to higher courts in India.

When Jayalalitha was the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Justice Fathima Beevi served as Tamil Nadu Governor from 1997 to 2001. She was born in 1927 to Annaveettil Meer Sahib and Khadeeja Beevi of the Rowther Family in Pathanamthitta.

She obtained her degree in law from Government Law College in Thiruvananthapuram. Fathima Beevi began her practice as a lawyer on November 14, 1950, and became a Munsiff eight years later. In 1983, she became a judge of the High Court. She was appointed as Supreme Court judge in 1989 and retired in 1992.

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