Sushila Karki (born 7 June 1952) is a Nepalese politician and former jurist who became the interim prime minister of Nepal following the Gen Z-led protests of September 2025 that led to her predecessor’s resignation. She is the first woman in Nepal’s history to serve both as prime minister and as chief justice of the Supreme Court of Nepal. Karki previously served as chief justice from 2016 to 2017.

Karki was born on 7 June 1952 to a Chhetri family from Sankarpur (later part of Biratnagar), Nepal. She is the eldest of her family's seven children.

Karki attended Tribhuvan University, earning a Bachelor of Arts from Mahendra Morang College in 1972. She then studied political science in India, and in 1975 received a master's in political science from Banaras Hindu University. She returned to Tribhuvan University to study law, graduating in 1978.

From 1986 to 1989, Karki worked as assistant teacher at Mahendra Multiple Campus, Dharan; from 1988, she concurrently was the bar president of the Koshi Zonal Court until 1990. That year, she participated in the 1990 People's Movement to overthrow the Panchayat regime and was imprisoned in Biratnagar Jail. She later wrote the novel Kara inspired by her experiences. In 2002, she was made president of the Biratnagar Appellate Court, a role she held until 2004, when she became a senior Advocate at the Nepal Bar Association.

Karki was appointed an ad hoc justice of the Supreme Court of Nepal in poush/magh 2065. Her position was made permanent the following year. In March 2016, the Supreme Court heard a writ petition over the appointment of Khil Raj Regmi as interim Prime Minister. The court held that the petition, originally filed in 2013, was no longer relevant and dismissed it; Karki and Chief Justice Kalyan Shrestha dissented and found that the appointment of Regmi was unconstitutional. Karki later argued that Regmi's appointment had caused lasting damage to the Nepalese judiciary system.

After the retirement of Chief Justice Shrestha in April 2016, Karki was recommended to take over the role by the Constitutional Council. She served on an ad hoc basis until a formal parliamentary hearing the following July confirmed her appointment. She was the first female Chief Justice and known at the time of her appointment for being strict and anti-corruption. She faced opposition for those attributes during her tenure, and was accused by the government of working against them after the Supreme Court overturned the appointment of Jaya Bahadur Chand as Chief of Nepal Police. Impeachment proceedings, which became easier to initiate after the 2015 adoption of the Constitution, were started against her in Parliament in April 2017 by Nepali Congress and CPN (Maoist Centre); she was automatically suspended.

According to The Himalayan Times, the impeachment proceedings were viewed by many to be "politically motivated, intended to thwart the verdicts on some high-profile cases" and United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein said that "the attempt to remove her gives rise to serious concerns about the Government's commitment to transitional justice and the rule of law". Dissatisfied with decision to impeach her, the then deputy prime minister and home minister, Bimalendra Nidhi resigned and the Rastriya Prajatantra Party left the coalition it had formed with Nepali Congress and CPN (MC). In May, the Cholendra Shumsher Rana of the Supreme Court issued a stay against the proceedings. Due to public pressure a deal was made during a cabinet reshuffle, and the ruling parties withdrew. Karki resigned 6 June 2017 on reaching the mandatory retirement age of 65.

After her retirement from the court, Karki wrote an autobiography about her early life and career as a judge. Published as Nyaya, Karki argued that democracy relied on the independence of the judiciary. The next year, she published her novel Kara.