the The Supreme Court collegium on Tuesday recommended the names of five additional judges – Justices Lekshmana Chandra Victoria Gowri, Pillaipakkam Bahukutumbi Balaji, Kandhasami Kulandaivelu Ramakrishnan, Ramachandran Kalaimathi and K Govindarajan Thilakavadi – for permanent judgeship of the Madras High Court.
SC collegium headed by CJI Chandrachud recommended the names of five additional judges for permanent judgeship
A three-member Supreme Court collegium comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices Sanjiv Khanna and BR Gavai passed the resolution recommending the names of the five additional judges, including three women judges, for appointment as permanent judges of the High Court.
“On 29 April 2024, the collegium of the Madras High Court unanimously recommended the names of the above Additional Judges for appointment as permanent Judges of that High Court. The Chief Minister and the Governor of the State of Tamil Nadu have concurred with the above recommendation,” the resolution said.
In terms of the Memorandum of Procedure, a Supreme Court judge conversant with the affairs of the Madras High Court was consulted with a view to ascertain the suitability of the five judges for being appointed as permanent Judges and the Supreme Court judge gave the opinion that all the five judges are eminently suitable for being appointed as permanent ones.
The Chief Justice of India constituted a committee of two Judges of the Supreme Court in terms of the resolution dated 26 October 2017 of the Supreme Court collegium and the committee assessed the judgments of the five additional judges.
Collegium scrutinized and evaluated material placed on record and found the five judges are fit and suitable
The Supreme Court collegium scrutinized and evaluated the material placed on record including the opinion of the sole consultee-Judge and the reports of the Judgment Evaluation Committee with a view to assess the merit and suitability of the five Additional Judges for appointment as permanent judges and found that they are fit and suitable for being appointed as permanent judges.
“In view of the above, the collegium resolves to recommend that (i) Smt Justice Lekshmana Chandra Victoria Gowri, (ii) Shri Justice Pillaipakkam Bahukutumbi Balaji, (iii) Shri Justice Kandhasami Kulandaivelu Ramakrishnan, (iv) Smt Justice Ramachandran Kalaimathi, and (v) Smt Justice K Govindarajan Thilakavadi, Additional Judges, be appointed as permanent Judges of the Madras High Court against the existing vacancies,” the Supreme Court collegium said in its resolution.
Appointment of Justice Gowri as an additional judge of High Court had created controversy last year
Last year, the appointment of Justice Gowri as an additional judge of the Madras High Court had created controversy and several members of the bar had written to the Chief Justice of India seeking to restrain her from taking oath as an additional judge, flagging her alleged hate speeches and affiliation to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The apex court, however, refused to entertain such pleas, saying a “consultative process” had taken place before the name of Justice Gowri was recommended by the collegium for appointment.
