Should not be ‘cold calling’ individuals merely for views they may have held as lawyers: CJI

NEW DELHI: Defending the collegium’s decision to appoint advocate Lekshmana Chandra Victoria Gowri appointment as a judge of the Madras High Court, Chief Justice DY Chandrachud has said one should not be “cold calling” individuals merely for views they may have held as lawyers.

The proposal to elevate the lawyer, who has been representing the Centre before the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court, has been mired in controversy following allegations of her affiliation to the BJP.

Some bar members of the high court had written to the CJI, seeking a recall of the recommendation made for appointing Gowri as an additional judge of the court and alleging that she had delivered hate speeches against Christians and Muslims.

Speaking at the Harvard Law School Center on the legal profession, the CJI said the Supreme Court collegium looked at “very carefully” the nature of the speech which the judge is alleged to have made and feedback was shared with all stakeholders including the Centre.

“We looked at it very carefully. The nature of speech which the judge is alleged to have made was looked at very carefully. One of the processes which we follow is to seek a report from the Chief Justice of the high court and we ask for feedback and share the feedback with the government.

“The process of appointing judges is a fairly complicated process involving different layers of the federal system--the states, and Union investigative agencies such as the Intelligence Bureau. This is very a broad-based collaborative process going on where no one arm has a decisive role to play,” Chandrachud said.

Expressing his views, the CJI said lawyers who represent a cross-section of diverse political perspectives turn out to be amazing judges.

“One of our greatest judges, Justice Krishna Iyer, who came out with some of the finest judgments, had a political background. My own experience has been that judges who appear for a cross-section of diverse political views across the spectrum have turned out to be amazing judges.