Justice Fathima Bibi finally broke the ‘glass ceiling’ in India by becoming the first female judge in Supreme Court of that country on this day 35 years ago. Appointed to the Indian apex court in 1989, she was also first Muslim woman to be appointed to any of the higher judiciaries in the country. She became judge of the Supreme Court on October 6 in 1989, creating history in India.
On her retirement from the apex court, Fathima Bibi served as a member of the National Human Rights Commission and later as the Governor of Tamil Nadu from 1997 to 2001. In 2023, she was honoured with ‘Kerala Prabha Award’, the second-highest honour given by Kerala government. In the 2024, she was posthumously awarded the ‘Padma Bhushan’.
Fathima Bibi was enrolled as advocate on November 14 in 1950. She began her career in the lower judiciary in Kerala.
She was appointed the Munsiff in the Kerala Sub-ordinate Judicial Services in 1958. She was promoted as the Sub-ordinate Judge in 1968 and as the Chief Judicial Magistrate in 1972, as District & Sessions Judge in 1974. In 1980, she was appointed the Judicial Member of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal. She was then elevated to the High Court as a Judge on August 4 in 1983.
Fathima Bibi became permanent Judge of the High Court on May 14 in 1984. She retired as the Judge of the High Court on April 29 in 1989 but was further elevated to the Supreme Court as a judge on October 6 in 1989 where she retired on April 29 in 1992.
Later, she went on to become the Governor of Tamil Nadu on January 25 in 1997.
Appointing her as the Governor of Tamil Nadu and Justice Sukhdev Singh Kang, former Chief Justice of Jammu and Kashmir High Court, as Governor of Kerala, the then President of India, Shankar Dayal Sharma said ‘Their experiences of and insights into the working of the Constitution and the laws comprise valuable assets.’
Fathima Bibi was born on April 30 in 1927 and died November 23 in 2023 at the age of 96. She was born at Pathanamthitta in the Kingdom of Travancore, now in Kerala, as the daughter of Annaveettil Meer Sahib and Khadiza Bibi into the Rowther Family.
