TN lawyers protest collegium bid to appoint Gowri as HC judge; writes to President
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Chennai: A GROUP of 21 Madras High Court lawyers have written to President Droupadi Murmu and the Supreme Court Collegium to request that the name of senior law officer Lekshmana Victoria Gowri be removed from the list of candidates for appointment as judges to the High Court.
The lawyers expressed their "sense of alarm and dismay" at the collegium's proposal, accusing Gowri, an Assistant Solicitor General of India for the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court, of "hate speech and regressive views" towards Christians and Muslims.
On January 17, the Supreme Court Collegium, which was composed of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and K M Joseph and was led by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, nominated Gowri's name for elevation to the Madras High Court along with the names of four other candidates. Venkatachari Lakshminarayanan, Pillaipakkam Bahukutumbi Balaji, Ramaswamy Neelakandan, and Kandhasami Kulandaivelu Ramakrishnan are among the four names that the government has not yet cleared, the Indian Express reported.
NGR Prasad, R Vaigai, S S Vasudevan, Anna Mathew, D Nagasaila, T Mohan, and S Devika are only a few of the distinguished Madras High Court lawyers who signed the letters addressed to the President and the SC Collegium.
The lawyers attempted to "remind" the Collegium about the “independence of the judiciary and the principle behind the collegium choosing future judges of the higher judiciary” and wrote to them by citing two video interviews, an article allegedly written by Gowri and the role she held in the BJP as national general secretary of the party's Mahila Morcha.
In the letter, it was claimed that Gowri "launched a shocking, distasteful diatribe against Christians" and cited two interviews she reportedly gave to an RSS-affiliated channel as well as an article she allegedly wrote for the "Organiser." “Her statements in these interviews amount to hate speech likely to spread and incite communal discord/violence,” the letters sent to the President and collegium said.
The letters said, “Gowri’s regressive views are also completely antithetical to foundational constitutional values and reflect her deep-rooted religious bigotry making her unfit to be appointed as a high court judge. The Collegium’s recommendation of a person who harbours such strong antipathy towards the minority community is disturbing, to say the least.”
Gowri stated in an interview with The Indian Express on January 22, five days after the Supreme Court Collegium recommended her for the position, that she resigned from all of her BJP positions and the party in June 2020. “Before I took charge as Assistant Solicitor General in September 2020, I was relieved from all party posts and membership,” she said.