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First woman judge of SC Fathima Beevi dies at 96; tributes pour in
Born in the erstwhile princely state of Travancore in 1927 in Kerala, died at the age of 96 in Kerala’s Kollam
Fathima Beevi, the first woman judge of the Supreme Court and later governor of Tamil Nadu, died at a hospital in Kerala’s Kollam at the age of 96 on Thursday afternoon. Justice Beevi, who was unmarried, is survived by her four younger sisters, with two brothers and a sister dying before her, according to a family member.
Born in the erstwhile princely state of Travancore in 1927 in Kerala, Beevi who handled several significant cases in her legal career, was an inspiring example of breaking the “glass ceiling”, a term not commonly used at that time. Not only did Justice Beevi pave the way for women to pursue careers in the male-dominated judiciary by taking over a Supreme Court judge in 1989, but she also became a role model for addressing the gender imbalance in the legal profession on the whole.
Justice Beevi had described her elevation to the apex court as the opening of a closed door.
Expressing condolences over her demise, Kerala governor Arif Mohammed Khan said, “Her life is an inspirational story of hard work and determination, and her contributions reflect her profound social commitment. May her soul rest in eternal peace”.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan recalled her journey from overcoming the educational challenges faced by girls to becoming the first woman judge of the Supreme Court.
Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin expressed his condolences for Beevi in a brief statement. AIADMK general secretary Edappadi Palaniswami who succeeded Jayalalithaa also shared his condolences.
Without her father, Meera Sahib, urging her -- a science student -- to pursue a legal career, the title of the first woman judge in the apex court might have gone to Justice Sujata Manohar years later. Justice Manohar was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1994, two years after Justice Beevi’s retirement.
Justice Beevi’s father, a government servant at a sub-registrar’s office, motivated his eldest of eight children to study law instead of pursuing an MSc in chemistry. He did not want her to become a college teacher or professor in Thiruvananthapuram. Justice Beevi completed her schooling at Catholicate High School in Pathanamthitta and earned a BSc degree from University College in Thiruvananthapuram.
She received the Travancore Bar Council gold medal for topping the bar council examination in 1949-50, a notable accomplishment for a diligent and hardworking student. After practising law for seven years, Beevi successfully cleared the state public service examination for the position of Munsiff. Subsequently, she was promoted to Subordinate Judge in 1968, Chief Judicial Magistrate in 1972, and District and Sessions Judge in 1974.
She was elevated to the Kerala High Court in 1983 and became a permanent judge there the following year. Justice Beevi was appointed as a judge of the Supreme Court in 1989 during Rajiv Gandhi’s tenure as Prime Minister.
During her extensive legal career, she handled various cases but is particularly remembered for inviting late AIADMK leader J Jayalalithaa to form the government when she served as governor of Tamil Nadu.
The Supreme Court had criticised Beevi for hurriedly swearing in Jayalalithaa as chief minister after the party won the assembly elections in May 2001. Jayalalithaa had been barred from contesting elections that year for being convicted in a corruption case by a Chennai court.
The top court unseated Jayalalithaa based on a PIL. Soon, Beevi was also prompted to resign in July 2001 after the then BJP-led Union government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee recalled her for failing to uphold the Constitution during the dramatic midnight arrest of DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi. The DMK was in the BJP-led NDA at that time. The NDA government perceived her report on the state’s law and order situation as biased.
Before serving as governor, Justice Beevi was a member of the National Human Rights Commission and chairperson of the Kerala Commission for Backward Classes. In 2023, the Kerala government awarded her the Kerala Prabha Award.
In a key moment in her career, Justice Beevi in the Scheduled Caste and Weaker Section Welfare Assn Vs the State of Karnataka (1991) case stressed the importance of principles of natural justice and protection of citizens from the arbitrary authority that the state or its agents may exercise. “It is one of the fundamental rules of our constitutional set-up that every citizen is protected against exercise of arbitrary authority by the State or its officers. If there is power to decide and determine to the prejudice of a person, duty to act judicially is implicit in the exercise of such power and the rule of natural justice operates in areas not covered by any law validly made,” she wrote in the judgment that related to the state’s power to declare an area as a “slum area”.
