Justice Leila Seth, First Woman High Court Chief Justice, Passes Away

Justice Leila Seth, the first woman Judge of Delhi High Court passed away on Saturday. She breathed her last at her residence in Noida.

Justice Seth, who became the first woman to top the London Bar Exam in 1958, was also an IAS Officer. In 1978, she became the first woman Judge of the Delhi High Court, and in 1991, she was appointed as the Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh High Court, becoming the first woman to ever hold the position of Chief Justice of a State High Court.

She was also one of the three members of the 2012 Justice Verma Committee, which was constituted in the aftermath of the horrendous Nirbhaya rape case, to suggest amendments for sternly dealing with sexual assault cases.

Besides, she has often been applauded for the empathy, courage and grace with which she had publicly supported her son, Vikram Seth, who is homosexual.