Sushila Karki scripts history: From top post in judiciary to being Nepal’s first female PM

When she completed her Masters in Political Science from Banaras Hindu University 50 years ago, Sushila Karki may not have thought she would go on to create a record in Nepal’s politics.

The first woman Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Nepal, Karki (73), is now set to take oath as the first woman prime minister on Friday.

Jurist Karki emerged as a popular choice to lead an interim government during deliberations between the Gen Z group, which led violent protests in Nepal, leading to the ouster of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Tuesday, President Ramchandra Paudel and Army Chief Ashok Raj Sigdel.

Karki was appointed as the 24th Chief Justice of Nepal in July 2016, becoming the first and the only woman as of date to occupy the post. She remained in the post for around 11 months.

“She has made a reputation of a bold and fair justice with zero tolerance to corruption,” remarked senior advocate Dinesh Tripathi. “As a bold and determined justice, she has stood strong against corruption.”

Karki faced an impeachment motion — considered as politically biased by several stakeholders — moved by the then Sherbahadur Deuba government, but it was later withdrawn.

Born on June 7, 1952, at Shankerpur-3 in eastern Nepal’s Biratnagar, close to the Indian border, she completed her Bachelors from Mahendra Morang campus, Tribhuvan University, Nepal, in 1971 and Masters degree in political science from Banaras Hindu University in 1975. She returned to Tribhuvan University to earn a degree in law in 1978.

Karki spent 32 years in the judicial profession and became a symbol of progress for women in the field of judiciary. She started her law practice in Biratnagar in 1979, when her strong academic background shaped her legal career. In between, she was also appointed as an assistant teacher at Mahendra Multiple Campus, Dharan, in 1985.

She became a senior advocate in 2007 and was appointed as an ad hoc judge in the Supreme Court in 2009. She became a permanent judge on November 18, 2010.

Karki is the eldest of her parents’ seven children and grew up in a simple farming family in Biratnagar. She is married to Durga Prasad Subedi, an erstwhile popular leader of Nepali Congress. They had met during her days at BHU.

“Subedi was a youth revolutionary member of Nepali Congress during the 1970s. He was part of the group that had hijacked, for the first time in Nepali history, a Royal Nepal Airlines aircraft to get INR 3 million to fund the party’s armed revolution to overthrow the partyless Panchayat System during the reign of the then King Birendra Shah,” said a Nepali Congress source.

That group hijacked the Kathmandu-bound aircraft from Biratnagar carrying Nepal Rastra Bank’s money and landed at Forbesganj in India in 1973, the source added. In 2018, Subedi wrote a book ‘Biman Bidroha’ describing his experience of hijacking the plane for political purposes.

Post her retirement, Karki penned two books and is a regular contributor to various newspapers and portals. ‘Nyay’ is her biographical book while another book ‘Kara’ is a novel inspired by her own experiences in jail during the People’s Movement of 1990 that led to the restoration of multiparty democracy in Nepal.

Her fans believe that Karki’s journey from a humble background from a remote Biratnagar hamlet to becoming Nepal’s first female Chief Justice and now the first female prime minister will begin a fresh era in the country’s politics.