If the Indian presidential elections go as planned, Rastrapathi Bhavan will be occupied for the first time by a woman. Pratibha Patil’s election will also see a lawyer after nearly two decades occupying India’s highest constitutional office.  With the numbers of women lawyers growing rapidly over the last two decades, perhaps it is time to examine the role played by women in the Indian legal profession.

In 1889, Cornelia Sorabjee became the first woman to read law at Oxford. Though she asssed the Bachelor of Civil Law exams in 1892, it would be 30 years before she was actually awarded the law degree.

Cornelia Sorabjee, Mithan Lam Tata, Kamila Tyabji, Justice Anna Chandy, Leila Seth, Sunanda Bhandare, Fatimah Beevi, .

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