B'luru advocates angry over Gowri's appointment as judge

The challenge against the appointment was based on her being a former offi cer-bearer of the BJP – she worked as the general secretary of the BJP’s Mahila Morcha

Rachana Ramesh | NT

Bengaluru: The Supreme Court dismissed a plea challenging the recommendation of its collegium to elevate advocate L Victoria Gowri as a judge of the Madras High Court. Meanwhile, Victoria Gowri took oath as an additional judge of Madras High Court on Tuesday.

Scores of lawyers gathered outside the Madras High Court premises and protested against her appointment, pointing to her past connections with the ruling party and “hate speech” against minorities. “It is yet another instance that highlights the opaque functioning of the collegium. It also reflects poorly on our judiciary when individuals who have made communal statements are rewarded with positions of power and authority within the system,” Poorna Ravishankar, a lawyer with Bahutva Karnataka said.

Shankarappa from the All India Lawyers’ Union Karnataka said that the collegium can make the decision to not appoint her permanently in a span of the next six months, but it is completely at their discretion alone.

“Such people must not sit on the bench. The collegium must take note of all complaints made by the public before appointment. We don’t have such a democracy here,” he said, and noted the opaqueness of the collegium by saying, “From a certain sector, they (judges) are selected and are not elected. There is no democratic selection that happens.”

“The SC Collegium has recommended BJP leader Victoria Gowri as a judge of the Madras HC. Part of BJP's Mahila Morcha, she even campaigned for the BJP during the 2014 election. She has publicly expressed prejudices against the minorities,” Clifton D Rozario, a lawyer at Manthan had said on Twitter days before the hearing.

The challenge against the appointment was based on her being a former officerbearer of the ruling party BJP – she worked as the general secretary of the BJP’s Mahila Morcha. Along with this, on multiple occasions, Victoria has made statements that constitute hate speech against minorities.

For example, she is reported to have said: “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.”