The first woman judge of the Supreme Court of India was:

Fathima Beevi. Justice Meera Sahib Fathima Beevi became the first woman judge of the Supreme Court of India in the late 1980s.

Early life and career:

• She was born in 1927 in Pathanamthitta, in present-day Kerala.
• She enrolled as an advocate in 1950 and topped the Bar Council examination.
• She joined the judicial service and rose to become a District and Sessions Judge.
• She became a judge of the Kerala High Court in 1983.

Supreme Court:

• After retiring from the High Court, she was appointed to the Supreme Court.
• She was also the first Muslim woman to become a judge of a higher court in India.
• She was the first woman in Asia to become a judge of a country's highest court.

After the Supreme Court:

• She served as a member of the National Human Rights Commission.
• She was Governor of Tamil Nadu from 1997 to 2001.
• She was awarded the Padma Bhushan posthumously in 2024.

Other women judges of the Supreme Court:

• Justice Sujata Manohar was the second woman judge.
• Justice Ruma Pal was the third.

Justice Gyan Sudha Misra, Justice Ranjana Desai, Justice R. Banumathi, Justice Indu Malhotra and Justice Indira Banerjee followed.

Justice Indu Malhotra was the first woman to be appointed directly from the Bar.

Justice B.V. Nagarathna is in line to become the first woman Chief Justice of India.

Women in the judiciary:

Women remain under-represented in the higher judiciary, and there have been calls to appoint more women judges.

Other firsts:

• Justice Leila Seth was the first woman Chief Justice of a High Court (Himachal Pradesh).
• Justice Anna Chandy was the first woman judge of a High Court in India (Kerala).

Why not the other options?

• ✗Justice Sujata Manohar and Justice Ruma Pal were later women judges of the Supreme Court.
• ✗Justice Leila Seth was the first woman Chief Justice of a High Court.