Lawyers Plea To President, Opposing Collegium Appointment Of Victoria Gowri As A HC Judge

The Madras High Court lawyers wrote to President Droupadi Murmu to express their resentment to the appointment of Lekshmana Chandra Victoria Gowri as a high court judge.

In a letter to the President, a group of 21 attorneys from the Madras High Court pleaded with her to reject the Supreme Court Collegium’s recommendation to nominate BJP official Lakshmana Chandra Victoria Gowri as a judge of the high court.

The attorneys mentioned instances in which Victoria Gowri was seen making disparaging statements about communities of colour. Her “regressive ideas” and “deep-rooted religious intolerance,” according to the lawyers, are what render her “unfit to be nominated as judge of the High Court.”

The Madras High Court lawyers drew attention to an interview given by Victoria Gowri to a YouTube channel hosted by the RSS in 2018 on “More threat to national security & peace? Jihad or Christian Missionary”. In her interview, she referred to Christianity as “white terror” and had made similar “distasteful diatribes” against Christians.

They also referred to another video interview titled “Cultural Genocide by Christian Missionaries in Bharat- Victoria Gowri” and an article on “Aggressive Baptising destroying social harmony” which was published in the ‘Organiser’, a publication of the RSS, as further examples to support their claim that she “harboured strong antipathy” towards minorities of the country.

“The Collegium’s recommendation to appoint a person who makes no bones about her hatred towards the minority communities will definitely dent the public perception about the impartiality of the judiciary. In the context of Ms. Gowri’s utterances, can any litigant belonging to Muslim or Christian community ever hope to get justice in her Court, if she becomes a Judge?” asked the lawyers.

The lawyers added, “In these troubled times, when the judiciary is facing unprecedented and unwarranted criticism from the executive, as we are apprehensive that appointments such as these may pave the way for undermining the independence of the judiciary.”

The group of lawyers who asked for the elevation of Victoria Gowri includes NGR Prasad, R Vaigai, Anna Mathew, D Nagasaila, T Mohan, R Rajaram, Akila RS, Jimraj Milton, SS Vasudevan, Sudha Ramalingam etc.

Earlier, a number of people, including leaders of the opposition parties had expressed disapproval of the Collegium’s selection of Victoria Gowri as a High Court judge.

Taking to Twitter, Congress MP Manickam Tagore stated, “Another Sanghi on her way into the judicial system.”