NEW DELHI: Former Supreme Court judge Indu Malhotra, appointed by the apex court on Wednesday to head five-member committee to probe the security breach during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent visit to Punjab, was the first woman lawyer to directly enter the top judiciary as a judge.
Justice Malhotra, who was designated as a Senior Advocate in 2007, took office as apex court judge on April 27, 2018.
She was the second woman to have been designated as a Senior Advocate by the Supreme Court in 2007.
She retired from the top court on March 13, 2021 Justice Malhotra penned several important verdicts, including her dissenting judgement in the historic Sabarimala Temple case in which she had said that judicial review of religious practices should not be done as courts cannot impose their morality or rationality on the form of worship of a deity.
She was also a part of the Constitution bench which had unanimously held section 497 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), dealing with the offence of adultery, as unconstitutional and struck down the penal provision.
Besides, she was part of a five-judge Constitution bench which had delivered the landmark judgement on September 6, 2019 and held that section 377 of the Indian Penal Code that criminalised consensual gay sex was "irrational, indefensible and manifestly arbitrary", and had said later that the affected parties had broken down with joy and relief after the verdict was pronounced.
Justice Malhotra was also appointed Delhi and Districts Cricket Association (DDCA) Ombudsman cum Ethics Officer in September, 2021.
Born on March 14, 1956 in Bangalore, Justice Malhotra did her schooling from Carmel Convent School, Delhi and obtained Bachelor's Degree in Political Science from Lady Shri Ram College in 1975, and then Masters Degree in Political Science in 1977 from Delhi University.
She was appointed as a Lecturer in Political Science in Miranda House College and Vivekanand College, Delhi University in 1978 and obtained post-graduate Diploma in Corporate Laws & Secretarial Practice from the Indian Law Institute in 1978-79.
The former apex court judge completed her Bachelor's Degree in Law from Delhi University in 1983 and enrolled as an advocate on January 12, 1983 with Bar Council of Delhi.
She qualified as an Advocate-on-Record Examination in 1988 and was awarded the Mukesh Goswami Memorial Prize for having topped the examination.
She was also a member of the Supreme Court Gender Sensitization and Internal Complaints Committee from November 2013 to 2017.
The first woman to be appointed as a judge of the apex court was Justice M Fathima Beevi in 1989, 39 years after the Supreme Court was set up in 1950.