Earlier today, the Centre notified the appointment of advocate Lekshmana Chandra Victoria Gowri as an additional judge of the Madras High Court, minutes before advocates from the Bar mentioned the matter in the Supreme Court seeking to stop the same.
Gowri, a BJP leader, has publicly expressed communal bias and said Christian extremist groups which are more dangerous than Islamic terror groups must be called “White terror”.
However, when the matter was mentioned again in the post-lunch session, Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud—he also heads the collegium which is responsible for the appointment and transfer of judges in the higher judiciary—said it has taken cognisance of the issue and the matter will be heard tomorrow.
"Certain developments have taken place…Information came to our attention after we forwarded the recommendation," CJI Chandrachud said.
The top court’s decision came after senior advocate Raju Ramachandran—representing advocates challenging the elevation—said despite the notification, the Supreme Court could still intervene in the issue. Ramachandran said keeping away vital information about Gowri’s “eligibility” and not her suitability has “handicapped” the collegium.
Since Gowri has been appointed as an additional judge, the top court has the scope to intervene. As an additional judge, Gowri would have been on a kind of two-year probation period before her appointment was made permanent. If Gowri was appointed as a permanent judge, the situation would have been slightly different since the parliament would get involved and an impeachment process would kick in.
BOOM looks at who Gowri is and what she is accused of.
Who is LC Victoria Gowri and what has she said?
Gowri is a practicing advocate before the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court. According to her Twitter Bio (which is now deleted), Gowri claims she is a National General Secretary of BJP’s Mahila Morcha. In 2010, Union Minister and Mahila Morcha President Smriti Irani appointed her state-in-charge of the party’s Kerala unit.
In 2015, she was appointed as the Centre’s senior standing counsel at the Madras High Court’s Madurai Bench.
Last month on January 17, the Supreme Court collegium recommended Gowri for elevation as an additional judge at the Madras High Court. However, Advocates from the Madras HC Bar told the top court that Gowri's “strong prejudice during her public speeches against citizens on the ground of their religious affiliation” disqualifies her from being considered as a judge.
“Her proposed appointment as a judge poses a grave threat to the fair administration of justice and citizens right to the same,” the petition in the top court read.
According to an article in Article-14, Gowri said just like how Islamic terrorism is called “green terror”, Christian extremist groups—which are “more dangerous” should be called “white terror”.
These are a few views Gowri has expressed in public:
“As far as India is concerned, I would like to say Christian groups are more dangerous than Islamic groups. Both are equally dangerous in the context of conversion, especially Love Jihad.”
“The problem of Christian (sic). If the Islamic terror (sic) is green terror, the Christian terror is white terror.”
“Bharatanatyam should not be danced for (sic) Christian songs. How could the posture of Lord Nataraja be equated (sic) with the name of Jesus Christ?”
“The slow, steady, and consistent invasion of our values and morals in this country by the continuous rule of pseudo-secularists in the name of secularism, in the name of globalization, in the name of global marketing, has made the constitutional promise of equality, a farce.”
“The list of Christian aggression is not ending. ‘Where there is a temple, there must be many Churches’ (sic) is their aggressive motto.”
In their plea before the Supreme Court, advocates from the Madras High Court Bar suggested the possibility that Gowri’s bias and publicly expressed views may not have been placed before the Madras High Court collegium or the Supreme Court collegium which could have affected the consideration of her eligibility.
Last week, the advocates had even written to President Droupadi Murmu against the recommendation.