In a moving acceptance speech delivered at an official farewell function organised in view of her retirement from service, Justice S. Vimala of the Madras High Court on Thursday impressed upon the need for husbands to offer all out support to their wives so that women could excel in their chosen careers and reach great heights.

Acknowledging the support she received from her lawyer husband all through her judicial career, the judge recalled how he had readily agreed to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary inside the Central Prison in Chennai as she was the Director of Tamil Nadu Judicial Academy then and had to attend an unavoidable official work in the jail.

“Nobody would have heard of a wedding anniversary celebrated in a prison but on that day, I had taken some of the trainee judges to the prison and asked my husband to join me over there for the celebrations. He came over and we had lunch along with the convicts and other prisoners. It became a memorable day,” she recalled.

Proud of the achievements of her son Vivek who, despite being a civil engineer-cum-lawyer, had excelled as a lyricist in the film industry and was now working with top musicians including A.R. Rahman, she referred to one of the most popular Tamil film songs titled ‘Oru Viral Puratchi’ (a single finger revolution) penned by him for actor Vijay starrer Sarkar.

The song refers to a revolution that could be kicked off with a single finger on which indelible ink is applied while casting votes, she said and urged all judges of the High Court to indulge in ‘Iru Viral Puratchi’ by using two of their fingers to hold their pens and author landmark judgments that could provide justice to the poor and the needy.

In his farewell address, Additional Advocate General S.R. Rajagopal said, Ms. Justice Vimala was born on January 11, 1957 and obtained her bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Seethalakshmi Ramaswamy College in Tiruchi. Thereafter, she studied law at Madras Law College and even obtained a doctorate from Tamil Nadu Dr. Ambedkar Law University.

She practised as a lawyer in Chidambaram and Cuddalore since 1993 and got appointed as a District Judge in 1999. She holds the distinction of being the first judge of the Mahila Court in Chennai and was appointed to the post in 2002. She had also held the post of Registrar General of Madras High Court before being elevated as judge of Madras High Court in 2011.