Earlier this month, the Delhi High Court bid adieu to Justice Rekha Palli after a tenure that lasted for almost a decade.

Upon her elevation to the Bench, Justice Palli brought over three decades of experience in litigation to the Delhi High Court. So, what mattered to her most was competence, the willingness to hustle and work hard. When we first met in February 2018, she found me overconfident, while I found her severe. I had originally joined her chamber for a month on a probation-of-sorts, but after the first half of my first day, she decided I was a good fit.

To her, the willingness to work hard, not pedigree, is an important currency.  She is unafraid of changing her mind when faced with persuasive evidence. Ego has no place for her at work. In her own words, “work is worship”. No matter what you were going through, Justice Palli prescribed a single medicine for it all – get to work. 

Justice was served tremendously by her intelligence, competence and speed. She has no room for pretense. She did not care for sounding a certain way and shunned needlessly complex sentences and words in her judgments, for the sake of simplicity. Her warmth and affection were reserved equally for all who came her way. She is delightfully unapologetic about being herself, even if that came at the risk of antagonising senior members of the Bar who expected special consideration. This could be polarising. One such Senior Advocate casually asked me once if I was alright when I told them I used to work as Justice Palli’s law researcher. Ignoring the bait, I replied simply, "I loved working with her. She is great.”

I stand by that statement even today. In a profession that normalises and perpetuates cliques, abuse, terrible pay, hierarchy and bad hours, the office of Justice Palli was a wonderful oasis. The Judge enjoyed a healthy work-life balance, and made sure of the same for all who worked with her. Ever the consummate professional, she had no time for gossip or personal chit-chat. Yet, her immense love for her family and her dogs found a way to shine through at stray moments.

I am convinced that the judge has too strong a conscience to stand for abuse or even perpetuate it. For instance, on the second day of joining her chamber, I was asked to assist the judge with research for a lengthy order. The next day, her feedback was that my work was not satisfactory. I burst into tears on hearing this, not on account of her feedback; it was more in response to the immense pressure and stress of a very hostile first year in litigation. It still amazes me that the judge’s first response to my tears was not to dismiss them, or berate me for crying, as I have often witnessed lawyers do. Rather, she stood up immediately and rushed to comfort me. In a few days, the tides had turned and she began giving me more responsibilities. But this moment I hold close to me - this was when I realised how much kindness and empathy she carries in her heart. A few years later, when I lost my father during the second wave of COVID-19 and could not find any morgue in Delhi to house him until his cremation the next day, I remember hearing the pain in her voice over the phone call. She was suffering with me.

These are some core qualities that make a judge essential to the fabric of society, most importantly, empathy and connection with ground realities. These very qualities made Justice Palli indispensable to the labour roster - often neglected by lawyers and judges alike. Her tenure often took her to this roster to, I believe, the immense luck of litigants. Given her speed, strong sense of empathy and affinity for first principles, she was deeply impactful in moving things along for labourers trapped in long-standing, seemingly never-ending litigation. I cannot forget her fury for a young advocate, who often represented labourers in this roster, for his callous, lazy approach to the case and lack of preparation. For her, he had done the unforgivable – played with the hope of the less fortunate. She always bore great disdain for weaponised incompetence.

All that said, Justice Palli has a great sense of humour. She doesn’t indulge in taking herself too seriously and placing herself on a pedestal. Instead, she reserves that seriousness and respect for her work and her responsibilities.

With my eight years of experience at the Bar, I can say with absolute certainty that the sincerity, speed and legal acumen Justice Palli shows for her work is unmatched and, frankly, astounding. She is a machine. It would take just one hand to count the number of days she left the High Court without finishing her orders and having them uploaded on the website. Every case is a puzzle she cannot wait to solve. Her impatience lends to her approach. She can read a file, cull out the legal issues involved, take note of the key annexures and their relevant paragraphs, all in a matter of minutes. No file can intimidate her. At her core, she continues to be that young lady who topped her college.

There are judges who involve their law researchers in their work and those who don’t, because things go faster that way. But at the heart of the legal profession is meaningful mentorship. Justice Palli took this duty rather seriously. Every single person setting foot in her office was held to a higher standard. There was no room for infantilising anyone. She was stern and unrelenting with the quality of work she expected, but she was equally quick to forgive and forget. Life in her office was busy, and full of work. A person with the drive to work was recognised and rewarded. Their days were filled with quick, substantial discussions on facts and legal propositions. For a young advocate like me, this was invaluable training in my professional journey.  

I remember this one time the judge took up a service appeal, long languishing in the list of final matters to be heard, at 3:30 PM. The appellant’s advocate thought, as is the wont of the unprepared, that there was no way the Bench would be interested in hearing the matter so late in the day. Unfortunately for him, it was taken up, and heard for over an hour. This was usual with Justice Palli. If she could dispose, she would. 

The appeal was argued poorly and aggressively, without a hint of preparation or any show of court etiquette. All of us watched in horror as the advocate raised his voice and gesticulated dramatically to drive home a dead argument. When he finished, Justice Palli calmly confirmed if that was the entirety of his arguments, and began dictating the final order. When she returned to her chamber later, she recounted meeting a fairly popular district court lawyer at a party at the beginning of her career. He had asked her husband (now Senior Advocate Anant Palli) and her what they did, and where they practiced. While her husband’s response had been greeted with an approving nod, the lawyer smirked at her reply and remarked that law was not a suitable career for women. He had suggested she consider doing something else. At this point of the story, Justice Palli turned around and grinned at us. She said,

“The lawyer arguing today was him! I imagine it was frustrating for him to be so wrong in every way."

On that note, I would like to congratulate Justice Palli for building a formidable career spanning four decades, one that disproves the notion held by that advocate - and many others like him - that law is not a suitable profession for women.

Congratulations, Ma’am. I look forward to seeing you at the Supreme Court.

 Remya Raj is an Advocate-on-Record at the Supreme Court of India.