More than 20 lawyers from the Madras High Court Bar Bench at Madurai on Thursday came out in open to protest the recommendation made by the Supreme Court Collegium of appointing lawyer Lekshmana Chandra Victoria Gowri as judge of the Madras High Court.
A group of 22 Advocates made representation to President Draupadi Murmu and the Supreme Court Collegium, alleging that Gowri had indulged in ‘hate speech’ against religious minorities, namely Muslims and Christians, in the past.
They also attached a screenshot of her Twitter account, where Gowri had claimed herself to be the ‘National General Secretary of BJP Mahila Morcha,’. The Advocates said that the screenshot was taken a few days back. She recently deactivated her Twitter account.
The Advocates demanded the Collegium to withdraw its recommendation, stating that appointments such as these may pave the way for undermining the independence of the judiciary.
The letter to the Collegium further said that at this juncture, it was extremely critical to safeguard the institution from being weakened by its own administrative action.
The lawyers requested the President to return the file recommending Gowri’s appointment and seek clarification as to how a person indulging in hate speech against Indian minorities could be recommended to the high constitutional post of a High Court judge.
The members of Madras High Court Bar, including Advocates N.G.R. Prasad, R. Vaigai, S.S. Vasudevan, Anna Mathew, and D. Nagasaila, alleged that Gowri held ‘regressive’ views, which were completely ‘antithetical’’ to the foundational constitutional values and also reflected her ‘deep-rooted religious bigotry,’ thus making her unfit to be appointed as a High Court judge.
Calling the recommendation as ‘disturbing,’ the lawyers said that a person passing such comments should be prosecuted under Sections 153A, 153B, 295A and 505 of the Indian Penal Code.
They cited two interviews, which were available on YouTube under the caption of ‘The More Threat to National Security & Peace?Jihad or Christian Missionary?’ and ‘Cultural genocide by Christian Missionaries in Bharat – Victoria Gowri’.
The lawyers further mentioned an article titled ‘Aggressive baptising destroying social harmony’ published on October 1, 2012 in an RSS publication, in which Gowri allegedly said that no finger was lifted to stop the ‘allured’ and ‘coerced’ conversions and to prevent the ‘Christians’ from ‘conceiving communal conflicts’.
She further said that for the past 50 years, the ‘marginalised’ Hindus had been fighting the mighty Christian diocese. The situation had now gone out of control.
The letter stated that in view of such comments, they had doubts over a litigant belonging to Muslim or Christian community ever hoping to get justice in her Court, if she became a Judge.
They further said that the recommendation to appoint Gowri as judge could lead to erosion of public confidence in the independence of the judiciary.