Lawyer's political leaning does not disable her from judgeship: CJI DY Chandrachud on Justice L Victoria Gowri episode

The Supreme Court Collegium carefully examined all material concerning Justice L Victoria Gowri before recommending her elevation as a Madras High Court judge, Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud recently said..CJI Chandrachud also said that a lawyer appearing for or espousing a political cause does not disable her from judgeship."Lawyers across their careers appear for a cross section of clients. Lawyers don't choose their clients. In fact, it is my firm belief that as a lawyer, your duty bound to appear for whoever comes to you in search of legal aid, much as a doctor has to administer medical aid to whoever comes to their clinic. You don't presume the guilt or the lack of guilt of people who come to you," CJI Chandrachud said.In this regard, he also highlighted the case of Justice VR Krishna Iyer."One of our greatest judges, Justice Krishna Iyer, who came out with some of the finest judgments, had a political background," said the 50th CJI.Justice Gowri's elevation was mired in controversy in light of her alleged affiliation to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) when she was a lawyer. An unverified Twitter account allegedly belonging to Gowri claimed in its bio that she was the National General Secretary of BJP Mahila Morcha.Pertinently, her remarks against Islam and Christianity, which are available on YouTube, also kicked up a storm.CJI Chandrachud was speaking at the Center for Legal Profession, Harvard Law School on October 21."Why the Collegium at least on the administrative side was not able to withdraw that recommendation," he was asked at the event..In response, CJI Chandrachud stated, "Your question contains an inference, which is that the Supreme Court didn't look at the issue at all, including after it was drawn to our attention. I don't think that would be a very correct assessment." .Elaborating further, he said,"We looked at it very, very carefully. The nature of the speech, which that judge is alleged to have made at a particular point of time, again, is looked at very, is very, very looked at very carefully. One of the processes which we follow in the Collegium is to ask for a report from the Chief Justice of the High Court.".CJI Chandrachud further stated that even after the collegium has examined details, if it still has doubts, then it is taken to the Chief Justice of the High Court to which the appointment is being made. "We go back to the chief justice of the High Court and we say, well, this has been drawn to our notice. Would you please give us a brief report on whether this is true or false? We ask for a feedback, we share that feedback with the government. The process also involves State and Union governments and a background check by the Intelligence Bureau (IB), he added."The process of appointing judges is therefore a fairly complicated process involving different layers of the federal system, the States, the Union and investigative agencies such as the Intelligent Bureau which do a background check on the antecedents of an individual," said the CJI. .The CJI stated that his own personal experience has been that lawyers who appeared for persons with diverse political views across the spectrum have turned out to be amazing judges. "So, I am not sure whether we should be cold calling an individual merely for the views, which they may have held as lawyers, because I do believe that there is something in our profession, of judging, that once you assume judicial office, whether it is peer training, the training which you undergo as judges, your experience as judges, there is something about this office, which makes you dispassionate, or which at least ought to make you dispassionate in terms of the work which you do, your interface with colleagues, your interface with the bar," said the CJI.