Prez appoints Victoria Gowri, 4 others as addl judges to MHC

CHENNAI: Amid the Supreme Court collegium initiated cognisance on the letter sent by the advocates from Tamil Nadu against the recommendation to elevate advocate LC Victoria Gowri to the post of additional judge of Madras High Court, the Union Law Ministry on Monday notified that five, including advocate Gowri, has been elevated to the post of additional judges of the chartered HC.

The names of the advocates Lekshmana Chandra Victoria Gowri, Pillaipakkam Bahukutumbi Balaji, Kandhasami Kulandaivelu Ramakrishnan, and judicial officers Ramachandran Kalaimathi, and K Govindarajan Thilakavadi have been cleared by the President in the exercise of the power conferred by clause (1) of Article 224 of the Constitution of India, according to the notification.

The above-said people will serve as additional Judges of the Madras High Court, in that order of seniority and for a period of two years, with effect from the date they assume charge of their respective offices.

It could be noted the union government had dropped the names of Judicial Officer P Vadaimalai V Lakshmi Narayanan and advocate R Neelakandan, which were recommended by the SC collegium.

Earlier in the day, the Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud disclosed that the Supreme Court Collegium had taken cognisance of the complaints raised against Victoria Gowri.

When senior counsel Raju Ramachandran made a mention before the CJI against the collegium recommendation to appoint Gowri, the CJI noted that there are certain developments that have taken place, in the sense that the collegium has taken cognisance of what was drawn to their attention, or came to their notice, after they formulated our recommendations on the recommendation of the Chief Justice of the collegium of High Court of Madras.

"Since we have taken cognisance of certain developments which have taken place thereafter, we can list this petition tomorrow morning. I will constitute a bench Let that go before the appropriate bench," the CJI told the senior counsel.

As the Union Law Minister Kirren Rijiju declared that five, including Victoria, have been elevated as the judges of Madras HC, Raju Ramachandran again made mention before the CJI about the development.

He further submitted that judicial intervention in the past restrained the President from issuing a warrant of appointment when a person was found that he was ineligible for the post of judge.

The CJI agreed to take up the matter on Friday.

Recently, a section of advocates practicing before Madras HC and its Madurai bench had made representations to the President to drop the name of justice Victoria citing that she had made statements against minorities.