Months after Nepal welcomed its first female President and Speaker of the House, the country is set to swear in its first female Chief Justice. The Judiciary Council on Sunday recommended the senior-most Justice Sushila Karki as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Karki will take office in April after the current Chief Justice, Kalyan Shrestha, retires.
Born on 7 June, 1952 in Biratnagar, Karki completed her undergraduate studies at Mahendra Morang College, Biratnagar in 1972. Three years later, she earned a postgraduate degree in political science from Banaras Hindu University in India. Then at the age of 26, Karki completed her Bachelors in Law in 1978 from Tribhuvan University.
Karki began her law career as an advocate in 1979 and was appointed as a Justice (ad hoc) in the Supreme Court thirty years later. She has been serving as a permanent Justice at the Supreme Court since 2010.
Karki is known for her zero tolerance approach against corruption. She was one of the two judges on the bench that convicted the sitting Minister for Information and Communication, Jaya Prakash Gupta, of corruption in 2012. And this January, a bench including Karki had ruled against granting amnesty to former UCPN (Maoist) lawmaker Bal Krishna Dhungel.