New Delhi: In its 67-year history, the Supreme Court will put a portrait of a woman lawyer in one of its libraries.
None other than, ‘Mother of PILs’ Pushpa Kapila Hingorani becomes the first woman lawyer to get her portrait in the Supreme Court Library.

Hingorani passed away on December 30, 2013. Her most notable contribution to law and society was the initiation of the unique remedial jurisprudence of Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the apex court of India in 1979

Hingorani, the first Indian woman to graduate from Cardiff Law School in Britain, was the first lawyer to sought justice for prisoners awaiting trial for long time periods.

While representing under trial prisoners in Bihar, Kapila and her husband filed a habeas corpus petition on the prisoners’ behalf, following which all the victims in the case, and eventually about 40,000 under trials across the country, were released by the top court.

One of the six women prisoners was Hussainara, which is why the landmark case came to be known as the Hussainara Khatoon case.This case earned Kapila the title of the ‘Mother of Public Interest Litigation’.

Her colour-portrait will therefore be seen alongside those of legal luminaries like MC Setalvad, CK Daphtry and RK Jain in the court’s second library.

On the release of her portrait on Tuesday, Chief Justice Dipak Misra said:  “This was long overdue.” The honour for Hingorani should have come much earlier as she was a true harbinger of justice for the voiceless, he added.

Kapila Hingorani, along with her lawyer husband Nirmal Hingorani, took up almost 100 PIL cases pro bono (up to 2013), which, in practical terms, have provided relief to millions of people at their doorsteps. 

Several of the PIL cases have led to change of law and development of constitutional law. 

 Over time, she received recognition and honour for her work and service to society from both national and international institutions and organizations. The Cardiff University, where Kapila Hingorani was an undergraduate in 1947, also conferred upon her the Honorary Fellowship of the University in 2007. 

Born on December 27, 1927, in Nairobi, Kenya, Kapila Hingorani was inspired by Mahatma Gandhi.  She introduced unique jurisprudence that gives access to justice for poor and disadvantaged.  

Hingorani was the first girl from her community to travel from Nairobi to the UK in 1947 for higher studies. She graduated in the year 1951 from Cardiff University, of which she is believed to have been the first Indian woman student and was later to become an Honorary Fellow. 

She qualified as a Barrister from the Hon'ble Society of Lincoln's Inn, London. She started the law practice in the Supreme Court of India in 1961 at a time when there were just three women lawyers at the Supreme Court. 

Hingorani and her three children — lawyers Aman, Priya and Shweta — fought more than 100 cases in the top court. She was 86 when she died in 2013 after a remarkable career spanning nearly 60 years.

On the choice of the portrait of a woman lawyer in one of its libraries, the Supreme Court Bar Association president Rupinder Surihas said, the portrait is a rightful recognition of Hingorani’s achievements as a member of the bar.He added, “She was not just a lawyer but a barrister too. She could have lived in the UK, but chose India.”

References:
http://www.timesnownews.com
http://www.hindustantimes.com
https://www.thebetterindia.com