Who is Victoria Gowri? The judge whose appointment to Madras HC has kicked up a row

A group of lawyers in Chennai have approached the apex court against the Central government’s recommendation for the elevation of the advocate Lekshmana Chandra Victoria Gowri as a judge of the Madras high court.

Alleging Gowri's relation with the Bhartiya Janata Party, lawyers have claimed that Gowri has given statements against minorities in the past and that her elevation will dent the independence of the judiciary.

In two separate letters addressed to President Droupadi Murmu and the Supreme Court collegium, the members of the Madras High Court Bar Council objected to the collegium’s recommendation alleging her appointment would “dents the independence of the judiciary.”

Remarks against Islam and Christianity kicked up a storm

The Madras lawyers backed their statement with two interviews given by Gowri in 2018 on YouTube captioned “The more threat to national security and Peace? Jihad or Christian Missionary?" and "Cultural genocide by Christian Missionaries in Bharat - Victoria Gowri."

"Like Islam is green terror, Christianity is white terror.Christian groups are more dangerous than Islam groups. Both are equally dangerous in the context of love jihad," Gowri can be heard saying in one of these interviews.

They also cited an article titled “Aggressive baptising destroying social harmony” published on October 1, 2012, in an RSS publication.

Who is L Victoria Gowri?

As per Bar and Bench, a premier online portal for Indian legal news, an unverified Twitter account allegedly belonging to Gowri in her bio wrote that she was the the National General Secretary of BJP Mahila Morcha. It further said that,  a tweet from the same handle in 2019 sai, “I just joined the BJP, you too can join the BJP and join hands to help create a New India!"

The collegium, comprising CJI, Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, and KM Joseph, had proposed the names of Gowri and four other lawyers for elevation to the high court on January 17. 

Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud on Monday agreed to list the matter on Friday this week.