Justice Leila Seth

Leila Seth was the first woman to top the Bar examinations in London, the first woman judge in the Delhi High Court and the first woman to become chief justice of a state High Court. She was appointed as a judge in 1978 and retired as Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh in 1992. In 1995 she was appointed as a one-member commission to examine the death in custody of Rajan Pillai and to suggest improvements in medical facilities for prisoners. She was a member of the 15th Law Commission of India (1997-2000) and also one of the three members of the committee set up after the gang rape of Nirbhaya in December 2012 (known as the Justice Verma Committee) that gave recommendations to the government on amendments to the criminal law and other matters. She is involved in human rights work, ethics and education. She is the author of three books, her autobiography, On Balance (Penguin), essays on people's rights in modern India entitled Talking of Justice (Aleph) and a book for children explaining the preamble to the Constitution of India We, the Children of India (Puffin). She believes that this last book should be read by every child in India and is also available in Hindi, Urdu, Marathi, Kanada, and Telugu.