Fathima Beevi
M. Fathima Beevi (30 April 1927 – 23 November 2023) was an Indian judge who was a justice of the Supreme Court of India. Appointed to the apex Court in 1989, she became the first female judge to be a part of the Supreme Court of India,[1][2][3][4][5][6][7] and the first Muslim woman to be appointed to any of the higher judiciaries in the country. On her retirement from the court, she served as a member of the National Human Rights Commission and later as the Governor of the Indian state 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.[3][8][9] In the 2024 honours list, she was posthumously awarded the Padma Bhushan.[10]
Fathima Beevi
Krishan Kant
(Additional Charge)
Dr. C. Rangarajan
(Additional Charge)
30 April 1927
Pathanamthitta, Travancore, India
(present day Kerala, India)
23 November 2023 (aged 96)
Kollam, Kerala, India
Early life and education[edit]
M. Fathima Beevi was born on 30 April 1927 at Pathanamthitta in the Kingdom of Travancore, now in the Indian state of Kerala, as the daughter of Annaveettil Meer Sahib and Khadeeja Beevi into the Rowther Family.[11][12]
Beevi attended Town school and Catholicate High School, Pathanamthitta and got her BSc in chemistry from women's college, Thiruvananthapuram. She obtained her L.B. from Government Law College, Thiruvananthapuram.[13][14]