KOCHI: Justice K K Usha, former Chief Justice of the Kerala High Court, passed away on Monday. She was 81.After having undergone a spinal cord surgery last week at a private hospital here, Justice Usha was to be brought to the room from the ICU on Monday, but she breathed her last following a cardiac arrest in the evening. Justice K Sukumaran is her husband.Justice Usha, who had a distinguished career as a judge and later as chief justice, began her career when she enrolled as an advocate in 1961. She served as a judge from 1991 to 2000. And when she was appointed Chief Justice of the Kerala High Court from 2000 to 2001, Justice Usha became the first woman to join the High Court Judiciary from the Bar and became a Chief Justice.In his condolence message, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said Justice Usha will be always remembered for her interventions from a women’s perspective during her tenure as a Judge and later as Chief Justice. “Justice Usha began her career as a lawyer at a time when women were very few in the profession. She rose to the position of Chief Justice through her sheer determination and hard work,” said the Chief Minister.After retiring from the high court, Justice Usha was made president of the Delhi-based Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal from 2001 to 2004. In 1975, Justice Usha represented India at the International Convention of the International Federation of Women Lawyers in Hamburg, Germany.She was India’s representative at the United Nations’ Joint Seminar on ‘Convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination as regards women’, organised by the International Federation of Women Lawyers and the International Federation of Women of Legal Careers. She was a member and the President of the University Women’s Association. She was involved in ‘Sree Narayana Sevika Samajam’, an orphanage and home for destitute women.The body will be brought home at 9:30 am and will be there till 12:30 pm, before cremation at Ravipuram crematorium. She is survived by husband Justice Sukumaran, daughters Lakshmi Gopal Raj and Karthika Sukumaran (lawyer, Kerala High Court), and their spouses Gopal Raj and K Sabarinath.

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