Leila Seth was the first woman to top the Bar examinations in London, the first woman judge of the Delhi High Court, and the first woman to become chief justice of a state High Court. She was appointed as a judge in 1978 and retired as Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh in 1992. In 1995 she was appointed as a one-member commission to examine the death in custody of Rajan Pillai and to suggest improvements in medical facilities for prisoners. She was a member of the 15th Law Commission of India (1997-2000) and one of the three members of the 2012 committee (known as the Justice Verma Committee), which was constituted in the aftermath of the rape in Delhi of the young woman known as Nirbhaya. She is the author of two previous books, her autobiography, On Balance, and We, the Children of India, which explains the principles of the Indian Constitution to its younger citizens.