Justice Manjula Chellur, 60, was sworn in yesterday as the new chief justice of Mumbai High Court.
Maharashtra Governor C V Rao administered the oath of office to her at a ceremony held in Raj Bhavan in the presence of a host of dignitaries.
The ceremony was attended by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, acting chief justice Vijaya K Tahilramani, cabinet ministers, judges of the Mumbai High Court, and other officials.
Prior to her new assignment, justice Chellur was serving as the first woman chief justice of Calcutta High Court.
She earlier served as chief justice of Kerala High Court.
Justice Chellur has become only the second woman chief justice in the 154-year-old history of Mumbai High Court which was inaugurated on August 14, 1862, and celebrated its 155th anniversary last week.
The Mumbai High Court has three benches in Aurangabad, Nagpur and Goa, besides jurisdiction over the Union Territories of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.
The first woman chief justice of Mumbai High Court was Sujata Manohar who assumed the post in 1994. She was later elevated to the Supreme Court.
Born on December 5, 1955 at Bellary in Karnataka, justice Chellur is the daughter of C Bheemappa Chetty and Rangamma Chetty.
After acquiring a degree in Arts from Allum Sumangalamma Womens College in her hometown, she joined the Renukacharya Law College in Bangalore (now Bengaluru) and obtained her LL.B degree in 1977.
She visited the Crown Court at Hurham, UK, during her stay in England for a year.
She launched her legal career as the first woman advocate to practise in Bellary in August 1978.
In April 1988, she joined the Karnataka Judicial Service as a district judge and got a fellowship on Gender and Law in 1997 at Warwick University, UK.
She was appointed the first woman judge of the Karnataka High Court in February 2000 and became a permanent judge in August that year.
She was later transferred to the Kerala High Court where she became the chief justice in September 2012.
Justice Chellur became the 37th and first-ever woman chief justice of Calcutta High Court in August 2014. During her legal career, she served as a legal advisor to several banks, agro-industries and other organisations besides handling several important cases both on civil and criminal sides.
Recognising her outstanding contributions in the field of law, the Karnataka State Women’s University, Bijapur, honoured her with an honorary doctorate in March 2013.