[Kottayam Bar Association Protest] Kerala High Court Initiates Suo Motu Contempt Against 29 Protesting Lawyers

The Kerala High Court has initiated suo motu contempt proceedings against twenty-nine lawyers who had protested and allegedly hurled abusive language against a female Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM), in Kottayam. 

The advocates of the Kottayam Bar Association had abstained from attending court proceedings last week to protest against the initiation of criminal proceedings against Advocate Nawab M.P.

Based on a complaint of the CJM Viveeja Sethumohan, the lawyer had been accused of allegedly forging the identity card of a surety to obtain a bail bond. Advocate Nawab was accordingly made the second accused for the commission of offences under Sections 465 (punishment for forgery), 466( Forgery of record of Court or of public register), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) and 471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record) read with 34 (common intention) of IPC.

In response to this, protest marches were held in the Kottayam Court Centre against the CJM, with abusive language being hurled against the female judicial officer. 

On receiving reports on the same from the CJM and the District Judge, the High Court initiated suo motu contempt proceedings on November 25, 2023. 

Today when the matter was taken up by a division bench comprising Justice Anil K. Narendran and Justice G. Girish, the Court directed the registry to hand over a copy of the concerned documents to the Advocates. 

The Bench further noted that the allegations raised against the lawyers were of a serious nature. 

The Bar Council of Kerala (BCK), had on November 25, 2023, constituted a Sub-Committee comprising K. P Jayachandran, Joseph John, K. K Nazzer, S. Sudarsanakumar, K.R Rajkumar and P.A Mohammed Sha for inquiring into the reasons that led to the Kottayam lawyers’ agitation against the Chief Judicial Magistrate and the subsequent developments. 

The matter has now been posted for further consideration on November 30, 2023 (Thursday). 

Case Title: Suo Motu v. Adv. Sojan Pavanios 

Case Number: Con. Cas. (Crl.) 6/ 2023