Dhaka: Mentioning that she has not failed as a judge, Bangladesh's first female judge Justice Nazmun Ara Sultana on Thursday said Bangladesh would not have seen 400 female judges now had she been unsuccessful in his career.

"I'd never delivered any wrong judgment knowingly or being inattentive to in my long career as a judge. I'm leaving the judiciary with self-satisfaction," she said.

Justice Nazmun Ara Sultana was addressing a farewell reception accorded to her by the Attorney General Office and the Supreme Court Bar Association on her last working day.

Justice Nazmun Ara Sultana went on retirement on Thursday after serving the judiciary for 42 years.

She said, "Although I had wanted to be free from the tough task of judgement and the restricted life of a judge, it pains me today as I'm leaving the judiciary."

Going down the memory lane, the female Justice said a desire peeped into her mind to be a judge on the very first day of his career as a lawyer in 1972. "But soon I came to know that I couldn't be a judge as females were not allowed then to be a judge in Bangladesh. But, the government lifted the ban within one and a half years of my practice as a lawyer," she said.

As the country's first female judge, Nazmun Ara said, she joined the Khulna Judgeship as its Munsiff at the end of 1975.

Although the then newspapers published reports on it with importance, it drew both praise and criticism from people, she said. "Some mocked me saying can a female be a judge? What justice will a woman do?" she said.

Attorney General Mahbubey Alam and SCBA President Advocate Zainul Abedin also spoke on the work of the female judge.

Chief Justice SK Sinha, SC judges and lawyers were present at the programme.
 
Nazmun, who obtained BSc and LLB, enrolled as a lawyer of Mymensingh District Court in July 1972.

She joined the Judicial Service as a Munsiff on December 20, 1975 and promoted to District and Session's Judge in 1991, also as the country's first district judge.

On May 28, 2000, she was appointed an Additional Judge of the High Court and made Judge of the Division on May 28, 2002.

Justice Nazmun is the founding president of Bangladesh Women Judges Association (BWJA).

She is also an active member of International Association of Women Judges (IAWJ) since its inception. She was selected as Secretary of IAWJ for 2 consecutive terms of 4 years.