M FATHIMA BEEVI

The country’s first woman Supreme Court judge, Justice Beevi is among the couple of judges elevated to the apex court after their retirement from high courts. Her appointment to the Supreme Court on October 6, 1989 — over five months after her retirement as a judge of the Kerala HC — was, in fact, viewed as then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi’s olive branch to the Muslim community in the aftermath of the Shah Bano case controversy. She retired on April 29, 1992, but was later appointed member of the NHRC.

In 1997, the Central government appointed her governor of Tamil Nadu, where she was at the centre of a political storm over her decision to ignore established constitutional norms and administer the oath of office to AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa as the chief minister in May 2001 despite the fact that Jayalalithaa couldn’t contest the Assembly elections due to her conviction in a corruption case.

Upset with the decision, DMK chief M Karunanidhi, who had been responsible for Justice Beevi’s appointment as governor, lobbied hard for her removal. However, she herself put in her papers after the NDA government decided to recommend to the President that she be recalled for not acting independently and failing to discharge her constitutional duties in the aftermath of the controversial arrest of Karunanidhi and two Union ministers by the Jayalalithaa government.