Justice M. Fathima Beevi was the first female judge to be appointed to the Supreme Court of India (1989) and the first Muslim woman to be appointed to any higher judiciary. She is the first woman judge of a Supreme Court of a nation in India and Asia. On her retirement from the court she served as a member of the National Human Rights Commission and as Governor in Tamil Nadu. Presently Justice M. Fathima Beevi stays in Pathanamthitta, Kerala, at her ancestral home.

Justice M. Fathima Beevi started her career in the lower judiciary of the state of Kerala and enrolled herself as an advocate on 14th November 1950. In May 1958 she got appointed in the Kerala Sub-ordinate Judicial Services as the Munsiff. In the year 1968 she got promoted to the post of the Sub-ordinate Judge. Subsequently in 1972 she became the Chief Judicial Magistrate while in 1974 she was promoted as District and Sessions Judge. In January 1980 she was designated as the Judicial Member of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal. Later on 4th August 1983 she was raised to the post of a Judge of the High Court. On 14th May 1984 Justice M. FathimaBeevi was made the permanent Judge of the High Court. She took her retirement from work on 29April 1989 as the Judge of the High Court, however later on 6th October 1989 she was further promoted to the Supreme Court as a Judge where she worked till 29th April 1992.

Her appointment to the Supreme Court over several senior judges was seen as a political decision by Rajiv Gandhi following the controversy over the Muslim Women’s (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act.

She later went on to become Governor of Tamil Nadu on 25 January 1997. 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 her to exercise her power under Article 161 of the Constitution (the Governor’s power to grant pardon).

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.