Justice Indu Malhotra, part of the Supreme Court bench that in 2018 upheld the LGBT community’s unfettered fundamental right to sexual preference, retired on Friday.

Justice Malhotra was part of the five-judge bench that had unanimously on September 6, 2018, passed the 495-page judgment upholding the rights of the LGBT community that had challenged IPC Section 377 as being unconstitutional. The section prohibited “sex against the order of nature”.

Justice Malhotra had observed that “history owed an apology to these members and their families”.

Justice Malhotra had been the sole dissenting judge on a five-judge constitution that had in September 2018 quashed as unconstitutional the centuries-old practice of banning the entry of women of child-bearing age into the Sabarimala temple in Kerala.

Justice Malhotra was the first woman advocate to be appointed directly as a Supreme Court judge on April 27, 2018.

Speaking at her farewell, Chief Justice of India S.A. Bobde said: “…I have seen Justice Indu Malhotra appearing before me as a lawyer. She would not stop the arguing. I asked my colleague why didn’t she stop arguing. I was told she prepares so well, she cannot resist to argue everything about the case….”

Justice Malhotra said: “…My thanks to all, I think I have been very blessed to serve on the bench of the Supreme Court and… to have contributed to the jurisprudence of the Supreme Court.”