Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud has responded to a query about the Supreme Court Collegium’s recommendation of Justice Victoria Gowri as Madras High Court judge by noting that a person should not be “disabled” from being appointed to a high judicial office for “views” she expressed as a “member of a political party” or the clients she appeared for as a lawyer.
The Chief Justice also underscored that judicial appointment was a “broad-based collaborative process“ in which “no one arm of the state has a decisive role to play”.
Justice Gowri was accused by petitioners in the Supreme Court of not just airing any “views” while she was a lawyer. They alleged she had made public utterances on social media that amounted to “hate speech, pure and simple, against minority communities”. The petitioners Anna Mathew and senior advocate R. Vaigai were among 21 lawyers who had written to President Droupadi Murmu, urging her to return the Supreme Court Collegium’s January 17 recommendation to elevate Ms. Gowri as Madras High Court judge.
