Nithyakalyani Narayanan
Justice Leila Seth was an eminent jurist and a pioneer in the field of Indian law. She holds a record number of ‘firsts’ in her career. Her brilliant profession spanned for a time of five decades.
Personal life
Justice Leila Seth was born on October 20th, 1930, at Lucknow. After completing her schooling at Loreto Convent, Darjeeling, she was working as a stenographer in Kolkata. After her marriage with Prem Seth, the couple moved to London for his job. She enrolled herself for law classes, thinking it won’t require attending many classes as she recently had a child[1]. When she was 27 years old, she topped the London Bar Exam, making her the first female to achieve that title. A London newspaper called her the “Mother-in-Law”. The next year, she joined the bar and cleared the civil service exam.
Justice Seth had three children, the youngest son being the famous author and activist, Vikram Seth. She passed away on May 5, 2017, due to cardiac arrest.
Professional life
After coming back to India, Justice Seth practised Patna High Court for ten years. She worked as a junior for Sachin Chaudhary and Ashoke Kumar Sen. She handled a range of cases, varying from company law to matrimonial disputes and others. As the field of law in India is a male-dominated area, she initially wasn’t given much work. In 1972, she moved to Delhi High Court where she dealt with civil petitions, company petitions, criminal matters, revisions and appeals. In the same year, she started her practice at Supreme Court, where she monitored tax issues, writ petitions and appeals.
In 1977, Leila Seth became a senior advocate at the Apex Court. Justice Leila Seth was a member of the jury of lawyers of the state government of West Bengal. The next year, she was designated as a Judge of the Delhi High Court and was the first woman to achieve this title. She became the Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh High Court (8th Chief Justice of the Court), making her the first woman to be the Chief Justice of a State High Court.
Justice Seth was a member of the 15th Law Commission of India and during her tenure, she was vocal for the rights of daughters over the ancestral property in the Hindu Succession Act, 1956. [2] She was the Chair of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative and was on the Humanities jury for the Infosys Prize from 2012 to 2016.
Leila Seth was a member of the enquiry commission of the controversy of the Shaktiman television serial.[3] She was in the single-member committee known as the Justice Leila Seth Commission which was created for inquiring about the death of Rajan Pillai aka ‘Biscuit Baron’[4]. She was a prominent member in bringing changes to the rape laws in India, after the famous Delhi gang-rape case of 2012, by being a part of a three-member committee known as the Justice Verma Committee, which resulted in the passing of the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 2013.[5]
She was a vocal ally of gay rights. She openly criticised Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code. When her son, Vikram Seth, came out as gay, she wrote an article in the Times of India objecting to the 2013 Koushal case.[6]
Literary works
Justice Leila Seth has authored three books. In 2003, she wrote her autobiography, titled “On Balance”. After seven years, she published “We, The Children of India”. The book has been penned in such a way that the Preamble of the Indian Constitution is readable and easy to comprehend to the children. In 2014, she wrote “Talking of Justice: People’s Rights in Modern India”.
[1] https://www.femina.in/achievers/justice-leila-seth-an-illustrious-life-46977.html
[2] http://theladiesfinger.com/justice-leila-seth/
[3] https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/team-to-test-shaktimaan-spell-on-children/cid/927523
[4] https://web.archive.org/web/20131111035857/http://mypage.rediff.com/money/1998/aug/04rajan.htm
[5] https://scroll.in/article/836802/how-leila-seth-co-wrote-the-law-that-convicted-the-delhi-gang-rape-and-murder-criminals
[6] https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/sunday-times/deep-focus/A-mother-and-a-judge-speaks-out-on-section-377/articleshow/29383723.cms