Supreme Court Collegium And LCV Gowri: Some lawyers have reached the Supreme Court against advocate Lakshmana Victoria Gowri, who is going to be appointed as an additional judge in the Madras High Court. He has alleged that Gauri is a member of the BJP. Along with this, it has also been said that he has written more than one objectionable article on the methods of propagation and expansion of Islam and Christianity. Chief Justice DY Chandrachud has said to hear the matter tomorrow i.e. Tuesday, February 7.
Collegium had sent the name of LCV Gauri
On January 17, a 3-member collegium headed by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court sent the recommendation of LCV Gauri’s name to the central government. The Supreme Court collegium had selected eight names, including Victoria Gauri, from the names sent by the Madras High Court and sent them to the government. Notification to appoint 5 of them as Additional Judges of Madras High Court for 2 years was issued on Monday (February 6).
Some lawyers of Madras High Court had objection
Some lawyers of the Madras High Court protested by writing a letter after the Collegium sent Victoria Gauri’s recommendation to the government. He had said that Victoria Gauri had written some articles in which she had described the methods of expansion of Christian religion in South India as dangerous for the country apart from Islamic love jihad. These lawyers said that it would not be right to appoint a woman with such an opinion as a judge of the High Court. On Monday (February 6) some lawyers also filed a petition in the Supreme Court.
Senior advocate Raju Ramachandran presented the case in the Supreme Court on behalf of the petitioner lawyers. Initially, the Chief Justice talked about the hearing on Friday (February 10), but after a while Raju Ramachandran again appeared in the court. He told that the government has issued a notification to appoint Victoria Gauri as a judge. Therefore, an immediate hearing on the matter is necessary. On this, the Chief Justice said that some material has come to the knowledge of the collegium after recommending his name. The Collegium has also taken cognizance of that. We will hear the matter tomorrow only. A bench will be constituted for this.
Will the Supreme Court stop the appointment?
There is a discussion in the legal circles whether the Supreme Court will stop the appointment of a judge even after the recommendation has been sent on its behalf and it has been approved by the government. Keep in mind that on January 19, the Supreme Court, while re-sending the recommendation of advocate Somashekhar Sundaresan’s name to the Center for appointment to the Bombay High Court, had said that merely having one’s opinion does not make one unfit to be a judge. The IB had reported about Somashekar that he has been continuously expressing anti-central government views on social platforms.
