Former BJP leader Victoria Gowri becomes Madras HC addl judge, supporters ask: ‘Is it a banned party’

Gowri is currently an assistant solicitor general based in Madurai, where there is a Bench of the Madras High Court. She says that about three months before she took over the post in September 2020, she had resigned from all BJP posts and also the party membership.

Gowri spent about a year as a member of the BJP, having joined in August 2019. Her Twitter handle then was ‘Chowkidar Victoria Gowri’, with her bio identifying her as the national general secretary of the BJP Mahila Morcha. Offline for days now, her Twitter timeline mostly features retweets of posts by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah.

The 21 Madras High Court lawyers who have raised objections to her elevation as a judge, writing to the President of India and Supreme Court Collegium, cite two YouTube interviews by her and a 2012 Organiser article. They claim that she compared Islam to “green horror” and Christianity to “white fear”, and refer to her remarks criticising Christian groups for “appropriating” Hindu cultural, art forms such as Bharatanatyam.

The lawyers demanded action against Gowri under Sections 153A, 153B, 295A and 505 of the IPC over “hate speech”. Asked about her remarks Sunday, Gowri refused to talk.

At the same time, Gowri has the backing of a large section of the Madurai bar of the High Court. Some 50 lawyers who support her cite numerous instances of lawyers with strong political views becoming judges earlier, who went on to perform their duties impartially.

A lawyer told The Indian Express: “She was a part of the BJP, is it a banned party in India?”

A senior lawyer argued that Gowri belonged to a district near Kanyakumari where both radical Hindu and Christian outfits have a strong following. “Her views were similar to that of an average BJP and RSS follower. Her conduct after her elevation matters, not her opinions before,” the lawyer said.

Her Madurai bar colleagues also point out that Gowri’s RSS affiliation, going back to her student days, was never a secret. Another said that while she might not be an extraordinary lawyer, “neither was she below average” and was known for her good arguments. The lawyer added: “We knew her political sympathies, and her appointment as law officer in 2020 was an indicator that she will become a judge.”

Neither is Gowri’s appointment as additional judge an aberration. S Ratnavel Pandian was the DMK’s Tirunelveli district secretary before he became a Supreme Court judge. In an example paralleling Gowri’s, there were objections to another woman lawyer, V M Velumani, following reports that she was a member of the AIADMK. Subsequently, AIADMK leader J Jayalalithaa issued a statement in the party newspaper saying Velumani had quit her membership of the party, and her name was clearer for judgeship.

Appointment of others such as senior advocate K M Vijayan was blocked. A suggestion by the Madras High Court to elevate him as a judge sparked off protests by groups claiming he was against social justice as he had fought against reservation going up to 69% in the state. Eventually, his name was turned down by the Supreme Court Collegium.

Retired Madras High Court judge K Chandru recalls that its Chief justice M N Chandurkar was denied elevation to the Supreme Court after it was reported that he had links with the RSS and had attended the funeral of M S Golwalkar in Nagpur.

Chandru argues that Gowri’s case is worse, as the objection is not just to her being an office-bearer in a political outfit, but to her “hate speeches” and “objectionable” writings.