Sushila Karki, a jurist once best known for her uncompromising stance against graft, was sworn in as Nepal’s interim Prime Minister yesterday.

She becomes the first woman to hold the office of which her appointment came in the wake of a week of mass protests and deadly clashes that forced Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli to resign. 

According to her Wikipedia page, she is not a career politician. 

Born on 7 June 1952, she is the eldest of seven children in a farming family, they grew up in eastern Nepal. 

Her family had close ties with Bishweshwar Prasad Koirala, Nepal's first democratically elected prime minister in 1959.

Ms Karki completed her Bachelor of Arts degree at Mahendra Morang Campus in 1972, followed by a master's in political science at Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in India in 1975. 

Three years later, in 1978, she obtained her Bachelor of Laws degree from Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu.

She briefly worked as an assistant teacher at Mahendra Multiple Campus in Dharan in 1985, while also establishing herself in legal practice in Biratnagar from 1979 onwards.

Over decades she worked as a lawyer, teacher and judge, rising to the Supreme Court bench and making history in July 2016 when she became Nepal’s first female Chief Justice. 

Her elevation to the top of the judiciary brought her national attention and controversy because it is reported that she used the bench to pursue corruption cases against powerful figures. 

As reported by Kathmandu post, it was her record on anti-corruption that made her an appealing compromise figure for protesters and some sections of the establishment. 

As a justice she presided over landmark decisions that challenged entrenched interests, most notably a Supreme Court ruling that disqualified Lokman Singh Karki from leading the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), a case that showed her willingness to check powerful officials. 

Her time as chief justice was, however, stormy. Less than a year into her tenure, lawmakers filed an impeachment motion accusing her of bias and of overstepping judicial bounds. 

She would later leave the court which many saw as the ultimate price she had to pay for confronting runaway corruption.

Now following an election on the online chatting platform Discord, she was selected by the protestors to assume the role. 

The appointment was agreed upon during talks with the Nepalese army. And she was sworn in as the interim Prime Minister 

According to reports by Financial Times, she faces immediate and deep challenges as she must calm a capital still scarred by violence, oversee investigations into protest deaths, reassure civil liberties defenders and international partners that rule-of-law standards will be respected, and shepherd the country toward fresh elections. 

Karki has vowed to work for Nepal's development, "We will try to establish a new beginning for the country," she told Indian broadcaster CNN-News18. 

Beyond the headlines, Karki is an author and a figure with a personal history entwined with Nepal’s democratic struggles. 

She has written about her life and the judiciary, and her career traces back to student politics and the pro-democracy movements that reshaped Nepal. 

Her husband, Durga Prasad Subedi, was a student-era activist.