Justice Fathima Beevi First Woman Judge Passes Away at 96

Nov. 23: Justice M Fathima Beevi, the first woman judge to be appointed to the Supreme Court of India, breathed her last on Thursday. She was ill and undergoing treatment at a private hospital at Kollam in Kerala. She was 96 years old.
M. Fathima Beevi became the first female judge of the Supreme Court of India and the first Muslim woman to be appointed to any of the higher judiciaries in the country. After her retirement, she served as member of National Human Rights Commission and later as Governor of Tamil Nadu from 1997 to 2001. In 2023, she was honoured with Kerala Prabha Award, the second-highest honour given by the Government of Kerala.
Justice Fathima Beevi was born at Pathanamthitta in the Kingdom of Travancore, now in the Indian state of Kerala, on 30 April 1927. She was the daughter of Annaveettil Meer Sahib and Khadeeja Beevi into Rowther Family.
Justice Fatima became the first female law graduate from Kerala. Following her graduation from Ernakulam Law College, Fatima began her career in the courts in her 50s. She was Kerala’s first Muslim woman to occupy the position of magistrate.