Sapana Pradhan Malla
Sapana Pradhan Malla is a Nepalese Supreme Court Judge since August 1, 2016 and a former member of the Nepalese Constituent Assembly. Malla also served as the former president of Judges Society, the professional organisation of Nepalese judges. She currently serves as the senior-most judge of Supreme Court of Nepal.
Early life and education
Malla was born on November 15, 1963, in Nawalparasi district in Nepal. She holds a Bachelor in Law from Tribhuwan University, Master in Comparative Law from the Delhi University and Mid-Career Masters on Public Administration from Kennedy School of Government from Harvard University.Career
Malla has been a practicing lawyer since 1987 and in 2013 she became Senior Advocate of Nepal. Malla also served as a member of the Nepalese Constituent Assembly, from May 2008 to May 2012, during which time she advocated for women's rights in all areas—from inclusion to reproductive rights to citizenship.When asked about the challenges she faces as an advocate for women's rights, she told PassBlue: "When I started working on women’s rights, I decided to take up this work because it wasn’t just social, cultural bias against women that existed in the country, but even the law was problematic. But when you want to reform the law, you need to challenge everything: the state, the biases against women, culture, religion and a majority of patriarchal views."
In 2008, Malla and Yanar Mohammed were joint winners of the Gruber Prize for Women's Rights for her work related to "public interest litigation in, including equality in inheritance, legalization of abortion, criminalization of marital rape, equality in marriage and family law."
Malla was a member of the Committee Against Torture during the 2014 to 2017 term. She is also the former president of the Forum for Women, Law & Development.