November 26, 2025

Justice Gowri's Appointment: SC Dismisses Pleas To Stop It

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2023-02-10 08:16:53

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Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.

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Should a person become ineligible for elevation as a High Court judge due to his or her past political connection or behaviour? This is not an easy question to answer in these polarized times but significantly, even though persons who have been appointed as judges may not have displayed their political affiliations in public, as humans they are likely to subscribe to a particular political view. The main point to note is that whether their judgments reflect this or whether they decide cases on merit. In any case, the SC collegium, and then the government, put the person under a heavy scanner before the recommendation is made or the appointment is finally cleared.

Premchand had written a very interesting story 'Panch Parameshwar', or judge is God. It narrated the story of two friends one of whom expected the other to decide in his favour in a civil case after the other was appointed the panch, or judge, in the case. But the judge friend decided against him on the basis of evidence. The first friend was shocked, the friendship broke and he wished to take revenge. He got the opportunity when he was appointed judge in a matter involving his former friend. But when he took the judge's seat, he too ruled in favour of his former friend based on the evidence.

This story is significant as the Supreme Court has dismissed pleas that sought to prevent Justice L C Victoria Gowri from being appointed as an additional judge in the Madras HC. The petitioners had raised objections based on Justice Gowri's past political connections (she was national general secretary of the BJP Mahila Morcha and till 2020 was an active member of the party) and her alleged hate speeches against the minority communities and had said that she was 'unfit' to be a High Court judge. The Supreme Court said that past political affiliations cannot be a bar for one to become a High Court judge. Interestingly, many judges appointed as High Court or even Supreme Court judges in the past also had political connections, with the most recent being Justice V Gopala Gowda who had been a member of the CPI(M). He later became a judge of the Karnataka High Court in 2007 and was on the Supreme Court bench from 2012 to 2016.

The apex court rightly distinguished between eligibility and suitability and said that it cannot go into the suitability of a candidate otherwise the process "will become haywire". It also stressed that the SC collegium, which recommended the name of Justice Gowri for additional judgeship, must have necessarily taken into account the objections now being raised by the petitioners before recommending her name. The court also pointed out that an additional judge can only be made permanent based on performance and in this respect Justice Gowri's performance will be closely watched.