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 The Supreme Court of India is the supreme judiciary of India, judicial authority and the supreme court, highest court of the Republic of India. It is the final Appellate court, court of appeal for all civil and criminal cases in India. It also ...

, and the first

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

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 A human rights commission, also known as a human relations commission, is a body set up to investigate, promote or protect human rights. The term may refer to international, national or subnational bodies set up for this purpose, such as nationa ...

and later as the

Governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

of the Indian state of

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...

from 1997 to 2001. In 2023, she was honoured with Kerala Prabha Award, the second-highest honour given by the

Government of Kerala The Government of Kerala (abbreviated as GoK), also known as the Kerala Government, is the administrative body responsible for governing the Indian States and territories of India, state of Kerala. The government is led by a chief minister, who ...

. In the 2024 honours list, she was posthumously awarded the

Padma Bhushan The Padma Bhushan (IAST: ''Padma Bhūṣaṇa'', lit. 'Lotus Decoration') is the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India, preceded by the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan and followed by the Padma Shri. Instituted on 2 Januar ...

Early life and education

M. Fathima Beevi was born on 30 April 1927 at

Pathanamthitta Pathanamthitta (), is a municipality, city in southern Kerala, India, spread over an area of . It is the administrative capital of Pathanamthitta district. The town has a population of 37,538 (as of 2011 census). The Hindu pilgrim centre Sab ...

in the

Kingdom of Travancore The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often vocalize it as st ...

, now in the Indian state of

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

, as the daughter of Annaveettil Meer Sahib and Khadeeja Beevi into the Rowther family. Beevi attended Town school and Catholicate High School,

and got her BSc in chemistry from women's college,

Thiruvananthapuram Thiruvananthapuram ( ), also known as Trivandrum, is the Capital city, capital city of the Indian state of Kerala. As of 2011, the Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation had a population of 957,730 over an area of 214.86 sq. km, making it the ...

. She obtained her LL.B. from Government Law College, Thiruvananthapuram.

Career

Beevi was enrolled as Advocate on 14 November 1950. She topped the Bar Council exam in 1950. She began her career in the lower judiciary in

. She was appointed the Munsiff in the Kerala Sub-ordinate Judicial Services in May 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 January 1980, Beevi was appointed the Judicial Member of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal. She was then elevated to the High Court as a Judge on 4 August 1983. Beevi became permanent Judge of the High Court on 14 May 1984. She retired as the Judge of the High Court on 29 April 1989 but was further elevated to the Supreme Court as a Judge on 6 October 1989 where she retired on 29 April 1992. Supreme Court of India - Retouched

Governor of Tamil Nadu

Beevi later went on to become the

Governor of Tamil Nadu The governor of Tamil Nadu is the head of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Governor (India), Governors in India have similar powers and functions at the state level as those of the president of India at the central level. They exist in the Sta ...

on 25 January 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 Shankar Dayal Sharma (; 19 August 1918 – 26 December 1999) was an Indian lawyer and politician who served as the President of India from 1992 to 1997. Born in Bhopal, Sharma studied at Agra, Allahabad and Lucknow and received a doctorate i ...

said "Their experience of and insights into the working of the Constitution and the laws comprise valuable assets." As the Governor of the state, she rejected the mercy petitions filed by the four condemned prisoners in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. The prisoners had sent the mercy petitions to the Governor, pleading for her to exercise her power under Article 161 of the Constitution (the Governor's power to grant pardon).

Controversy

Beevi was embroiled in controversy when she gave a clean chit to the law and order situation in

that prompted the ire of the

Central government A central government is the government that is a controlling power over a unitary state. Another distinct but sovereign political entity is a federal government, which may have distinct powers at various levels of government, authorized or deleg ...

. The Minister for Law, Arun Jaitley asked for her resignation. Later she left her office as Governor of the state under controversial circumstances of her accepting

Jayalalithaa Jayaram Jayalalithaa (24 February 1948 – 5 December 2016), popularly known as Amma, was an Indian actress, politician, and philanthropist who served as the chief minister of Tamil Nadu for more than fourteen years between 1991 and 2016. She ...

's assembly majority after the elections and over the arrest of Karunanidhi, who pitched for her appointment four years ago. Jayalalitha defended the state Governor's decision to invite her to form the government. She said "She is a former supreme court judge. She herself is a legal expert. Nobody need teach her about law or the constitution. Her decision is not justiciable." Jayalalitha's party had received the simple majority (131 seats out of total 234 seats in the Tamil Nadu Assembly) after elections in May 2001. Fathima Beevi, the then Governor of Tamil Nadu administered the oath of office to J Jayalalitha as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu on 14 May 2001 in spite of the fact that Jayalalitha could not contest the election and would not be able to get herself elected by the people to the assembly within six months as per the constitution. There were a few Public Interest Litigations (PIL) filed in the Supreme Court questioning the validity of her appointment as the

Chief Minister A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union ter ...

. Fathima Beevi justified her decision by saying that the majority party in the state assembly had elected Jayalalitha as their leader. Fathima Beevi submitted her resignation after the Union Cabinet decided to recommend to the President to recall the Governor for having failed to discharge her constitutional obligation. The centre was peeved with Ms. Fathima Beevi for not having furnished an independent and objective assessment of the sequence of events after the arrest of the former Chief Minister, M. Karunanidhi, and the two Union Ministers,

Murasoli Maran Murasoli Maran (17 August 1934, Thirukkuvalai – 23 November 2003) was an Indian politician and leader of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party, which was headed by his maternal uncle and mentor, M. Karunanidhi. A Member of Parliament fo ...

and T. R. Baalu. The centre had accused her of toeing the official line verbatim. The then

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (ISO 15919, ISO: , , AP) is a States and union territories of India, state on the East Coast of India, east coast of southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, seventh-largest state and th ...

Governor, Dr C. Rangarajan, took charge as the acting Governor of Tamil Nadu, following her resignation. Subsequently, the Supreme Court of India overturned her appointment of Jayalalithaa as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. Referring to the case, the Court Bench ruled that "The Governor cannot, in the exercise of his/her discretion or otherwise, do anything that is contrary to the Constitution and the laws. Therefore, the Governor, having due regard to the Constitution and the laws, must decline to exercise the discretion in appointing as Chief Minister a non-member who was not qualified to become a member of the legislature."

Other duties

As the Governor of the state she had also served as the Chancellor of Madras University. It was reported by university sources that the Vice-Chancellor, P.T. Manoharan, had decided to quit his office in the wake of the Chancellor allegedly withholding her approval to the Syndicate's decision to establish a new department for contemporary Tamil literature. She had also served as the Chairman of Kerala Commission for Backward Classes (1993) and member of National Human Rights Commission (1993). She received Hon. D. Litt. and Mahila Shiromani Award in 1990. She was also awarded ''Bharat Jyoti'' Award. The left parties also discussed the nomination of the prospects of Fathima Beevi as the President of India, during which the NDA Government proposed the name of Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam.

Death

Fathima Beevi died on 23 November 2023, at the age of 96.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beevi, Fatima 1927 births 2023 deaths 20th-century Indian Muslims Women state governors of India 20th-century Indian women politicians 20th-century Indian politicians 20th-century Indian judges Malayali people Governors of Tamil Nadu People from Pathanamthitta district Justices of the Supreme Court of India Judges of the Madras High Court Women in Tamil Nadu politics 20th-century Indian lawyers Women in Kerala politics Women from the Kingdom of Travancore People from the Kingdom of Travancore 21st-century Indian women politicians 21st-century Indian politicians Former judges of Indian high courts High Court of Kerala former judges Women educators from Kerala Educators from Kerala 20th-century Indian women judges Government Law College, Thiruvananthapuram alumni Kerala Prabha Award Winners