Washington: Tejal Mehta, an Indian-American woman judge who promised to make a real impact to the community and treat people with compassion, has taken oath as the first justice of a district court in the US state of Massachusetts.
She will serve as the first justice of the Ayer District Court. Her swearing-in took place on Thursday.
She has served as an associate justice with the same court and was unanimously selected and sworn in by Judge Stacey Fortes, chief justice of the District Court, on March 2, the Lowell Sun newspaper reported.
“I'm confident that with her leadership ... that the best is yet to come for the Ayer District Court,” said Fortes, chief justice of the District Court, who selected Mehta for the position and swore her in during the ceremony.
“As a lawyer, you can help people, but you can only help them to a point,” Mehta said, adding that “As a judge, you can do so much more and get to the root of issues and talk to people in such a way that really gets through to them. I have seen the same hopes and despairs in every court I have sat in as a travelling judge,” Mehta, who started her career in civil work, said.