Лейла Сет: Первая женщина-судья в Индии.

Former Indian High Court Chief Justice

Leila Seth (20 October 1930 – 5 May 2017) was an Indian judge who served as the first woman judge on the Delhi High Court and became the first woman to become Chief Justice of a state High Court, Himachal Pradesh High Court, on 5 August 1991. She was also the first woman to be designated as a senior counsel by the Supreme Court of India. She sat on a number of enquiry commissions, including one into the death of 'Biscuit Baron' Rajan Pillai, and was also a part of the three member bench of the Justice Verma Committee that was established to overhaul India's rape laws in the aftermath of the infamous 2012 Delhi gang rape case. She was a member of the 15th Law Commission of India from 1997 to 2000, and was responsible for the amendments to the Hindu Succession Act that gave equal rights to daughters in joint family property.

Leila Seth was born on 20 October 1930 in Lucknow, the first daughter after two sons in her family. She is said to have been very close to her father, who worked in the Imperial Railway Service and was devastated when he died when she was only 11 years old. After her father's death, the family struggled financially, but Leila's mother managed to educate her in Loreto Convent, Darjeeling. After finishing her schooling, she began to work as a stenographer in Kolkata. It was here that she was introduced to her husband Prem Seth, and had what she called a 'semi arranged' marriage. After marriage, she moved to London with her husband who was working at Bata. Her move to London gave her the opportunity to start studying law. In an interview, she said that she picked law for the simple reason that it did not require attending classes, which was a priority since she had an infant at the time. She recounted how she would initially not get a lot of work, as people did not think a woman lawyer would be capable of handling it. Leila Seth handled diverse cases, from Tax matters (Income Tax, Sales Tax, Excise and Customs), to Company Law, Constitutional Law, Civil, Criminal cases and also Matrimonial suits and public interest litigations. She also served as the Chair of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) for several years. She served on the Humanities jury for the Infosys Prize from 2012 to 2016. Justice Seth was also a part of various enquiry commissions, one of which was responsible for studying the effects of the television serial, Shaktiman (about a popular superhero) on children. Shaktiman was a popular TV series for children and it was the center of controversy because many children set themselves on fire or threw themselves off buildings hoping that Shaktiman would come and rescue them. She was also the single member of the Justice Leila Seth Commission which enquired into the custodial death of businessman Rajan Pillai, or popularly known as "Biscuit Baron".

Justice Leila Seth married Prem Seth when she was 20 years old. They had three children together – Vikram Seth, Shantum Seth and Aradhana Seth. Vikram Seth went on to be an acclaimed poet and author, Shantum Seth is a Buddhist teacher, and Aradhana is an artist, art director and filmmaker. Leila Seth was vocal about supporting her son Vikram Seth when he came out as gay, and wrote extensively decrying Section 377 and in favour of LGBTQIA rights, including an op ed in The Times Of India after the Koushal judgment in 2013 reinstated Section 377.

Justice Leila Seth died after suffering a cardio respiratory attack on the night of 5 May 2017 at her residence in Noida, aged 86. She is survived by her husband, two sons and a daughter. As per her wishes no funeral was held since she donated her eyes and other organs for transplant or medical research purposes.