The Supreme Court on Monday decided to urgently fix for hearing on Tuesday a plea against the Collegium's decision to recommend the appointment of Lekshmana Chandra Victoria Gowri as a judge of the Madras High Court.
"There are certain developments that have taken place. The Collegium has taken cognisance of what came to our attention after we made the recommendation. Since we have already taken cognisance, we’ll list the matter tomorrow morning. Let it go before an appropriate bench," a bench led by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud said.
The top court advanced its hearing on a mentioning made by senior advocate Raju Ramachandran for a second time. He had mentioned the matter in the morning, prompting the court to fix the matter for consideration on Friday.
"This is an urgent petition by senior lawyers of Madras concerning the impending appointment. They are praying for interim relief. I would request you to take it at the earliest," Raju said.
The CJI, who initially said "next Monday", agreed to advance the date on Raju's request of an earlier day.
Minutes later, Law and Justice Minister Kiren Rijiju tweeted that the Centre had approved her appointment as an additional judge of the Madras HC, along with four others. In a tweet, he extended best wishes to her and 12 others appointed as additional judges of the Allahabad and Karnataka High Court.
At 2 pm, Ramachandran mentioned the matter again for an urgent hearing. The court then scheduled it for a hearing on Tuesday.
A group of Madras HC lawyers opposed Gowri's proposed appointment after reports emerged about her affiliation to the BJP and also certain statements about Muslims and Christians, 'Love Jihad' and illegal conversion.
The writ petition filed advocates Anna Mathews, Sudha Ramalingam and D Nagasila sought a direction seeking to set aside the recommendation for the elevation of Gowri as unconstitutional on account of "her prejudices against the minorities".
(Published 06 February 2023, 08:53 IST)
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