Kerala High Court Constitutes Grievance Redressal Committee For Advocates

The Kerala High Court has constituted a Grievance Redressal Committee headed by Chief Justice S V Bhatti for addressing the grievances of Advocates.

The Committee also consists of Justice Muhamed Mustaque, Justice Somarajan P, the Advocate General of Kerala, the Chairman of the Bar Council of Kerala and the President of the High Court Bar Association.

The Committee has been constituted to redress grievances of members of the bar in an attempt to avoid instances of strikes, boycotts by members of the bar.

“The Grievance Redressal Committee may consider the genuine grievance related to the difference in opinion or dissatisfaction because of procedural changes in filing/listing of the matters and any genuine grievance pertaining to misbehaviour of any member of the lower judiciary, provided such grievance must be genuine and not to keep pressure on any judicial officer” the notice issued by the Registrar General stated.

The Committee has been constituted pursuant to the recent order of the Supreme Court that requested all High Courts to constitute a Grievance Redressal Committee. The Apex Court had also directed such committees to be constituted for District Courts as well.

The Order was passed by a Division Bench comprising Justice M R Shah and Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah in a petition filed by Bar Council of India. The BCI had submitted that such committees were required in order to check frequent strikes, boycotts by members of the bar and to redress their genuine grievances.

“we once again reiterate that no member of the Bar can go on strike and/or abstain himself from court working. Time and again this Court has emphasised and criticized the advocates going on strike and abstaining them from work. If the member of the Bar has any genuine grievance on the difficulty being faced because of because of procedural changes in filing/listing of the matters and/or any genuine grievance pertaining to misbehave of any member of the lower judiciary they can very well make a representation and it is appropriate that their genuine grievances are considered by some forum so that such strikes can be avoided and members of the Bar who might have genuine grievances like above may ventilate their grievances,” the Apex Court had stated in its order.