Petitioners Anna Mathew, Sudha Ramalingam, D Nagasaila and R Vaigai, all advocates practising in the identical HC, by way of senior advocates Raju Ramachandran and Anand Grover, had questioned Gowri’s previous political affiliations and cited her five-year-old purported hate speeches towards alleged compelled conversions by Muslim clerics and Christian missionaries.
The SC mentioned her previous political affiliation was no disqualification as she fulfilled eligibility norms for judgeship in a constitutional courtroom. “Political affiliation had never been a ground to bar a candidate’s appointment as a HC judge,” the SC mentioned.
The petitioners had made late evening requests for a late Tuesday evening listening to on the problem, trying to forestall Gowri from taking oath as a Choose at 10.35am on Wednesday. The CJI declined the request and constituted a bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna and BR Gavai, who would succeed CJI Chandrachud in 2024 and 2025, respectively.
The brand new bench was constituted after Justice Sundaresh, who was to take a seat with Justice Khanna, expressed reservations to the CJI on listening to the case, as he had been a consultee choose for appointment of advocate Gowri as a Choose.
Justices Khanna and Gavai started proceedings at 10.25am to fathom if the petitioners have raised some stable grounds requiring detailed examination and warranting issuance of a keep on Gowri’s oath-taking.
Ramachandran mentioned there are implied eligibility circumstances – like respecting proper to equality and proper to life – enshrined in Article 217 (which particulars appointment and circumstances of the workplace of HC Choose), which Gowri didn’t fulfil and the January 17 resolution of the Collegium, comprising the CJI and justices SK Kaul and KM Joseph, was vitiated within the absence of consideration of the fabric cited by the petitioners.
The bench mentioned, “There is a difference between eligibility and suitability. The eligibility criteria is fulfilled by the candidate. As of suitability, that is an area the Supreme Court cannot go into and should not go into as it is subjective. If the SC goes into suitability criteria on the judicial side, it will make the judge selection system unworkable.”
When Ramachandran mentioned Gowri’s statements indicated a mindset that’s not in sync with the beliefs of the Structure and that her oath to bear true allegiance to the Structure could be a paper oath, the bench mentioned: “The Collegium has a robust system of inquiring about the suitability of a person for appointment as a HC Judge. It makes discrete inquiries and takes the opinion of SC judges, who have worked in that HCs and know the ability and suitability. You cannot argue that the consultee judges did not know about her background and that the Collegium did not consider all these aspects cited now.”
Justice Gavai mentioned many individuals, with previous political affiliations, have been appointed as judges to the HCs and SC. “I have been a judge for the last 20 years and I have a political background (his father RS Gavai, the founder of Republican Party and a reputed politician, who, after three decades of active political life, became Governors of Bihar, Sikkim and Kerala),” he mentioned.
“There were several, including Krishna Iyer, KS Hegde, Aftab Alam, FI Rebello, Rama Jois and Rajendra Sachar, who were politically affiliated. So, political affiliation had never been a ground to bar a candidate’s appointment as a Judge of the high courts,” Justice Gavai mentioned.
Discovering that political affiliation argument shouldn’t be slicing any ice, Ramachandran tried to concentrate on her alleged hate speech. However the bench lower his arguments quick by saying, “Do you think the Collegium was unaware of these facts? If we start a new jurisdiction by examining suitability, then it would open a Pandora’s box. You are stretching it too far. It is impossible to assume that the Collegium did not know about the petitioners’ assertions, facts and background of the candidate.”
“We cannot direct the Collegium to reconsider suitability. She has been appointed as an additional judge. The Collegium will assess her suitability when she is due for confirmation as a permanent judge. We have a robust evaluation system in the Collegium and let us not interfere in that,” the bench mentioned.
Bar Council of India chairman Manan Ok Mishra instructed the courtroom that the allegations of misconduct towards Gowri is far-fetched as on inquiry it has been discovered that not a single criticism towards her is pending both with the BCI or the state bar council. The SC, whereas rejecting the petitions, mentioned an in depth order could be handed quickly.
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