A group of 21 lawyers from Tamil Nadu has written a petition to President Draupadi Murmu requesting her to reconsider the Supreme Court collegium recommendation of elevating advocate Victoria Gowri as Madras High Court judge.
The advocates which include seniors like R. Vaigai, V. Suresh and NGR Prasad have, in their petition dated January 17, stated that Victoria Gowri in her capacity as a BJP leader had made several hate speeches against minorities. The advocates said that these hate speeches are available on YouTube as also in publications associated with the RSS.
The lawyers also attached a screenshot of Victoria Gowri’s tweeter account where she claimed herself as the ‘National General Secretary of Mahila Morcha’. Advocates, in the petition, said that the screenshot was taken a few days back and that she had recently deleted her Twitter account.
The petitioners said that she had made extreme comments about Love-Jihad and religious conversions and had accused the Roman Catholics of nefarious activities. They also said that she had even said in public that Bharathanatyam should not be played during Christian songs.
In the petition, the advocates said that she was unfit to be made a high court judge due to her regressive views that were purely antithetical to the foundational constitutional values. The advocates also said that her views reflected her deep-rooted religious bigotry.
The advocates also asked whether any minority belonging to the Christian or Muslim community would get justice in her bench if Victoria Gowri was made a judge.
The lawyers also flagged the collegium’s recommendation and said that recommending such a person who harbors strong antipathy towards the minority community was disturbing.
It may be noted that the late Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer had been a minister in the left-front government of Kerala before becoming a judge of the Kerala high court and then Supreme Court.
