Uma Ahamad, 86, remembers the time she spent with her friend, Justice Leila Seth (above), at a memorial service held at Loreto College on Saturday. “We had both failed in the Hindi exam. Sister Patricia said you will lose honours if you don’t pass in Hindi. We took private tuitions and finally managed to pass the exam,” said Ahamad.

Seth, a former pupil of Loreto Convent, Darjeeling, and Loreto College, Calcutta, passed away on May 5. She was the first woman judge of Delhi High Court and went on to become the first woman to head a high court when she was appointed the chief justice of Himachal Pradesh High Court in 1991.

Ahamad recounted that Seth’s husband, Prem Nath Seth, had left his job in Calcutta and relocated to Delhi after his wife was appointed a judge at the high court there.

Seth is survived by her husband, two sons, one of them being author Vikram Seth, and a daughter.