Kerala High Court Advocates Association cancels farewell for Justice Mary Joseph after she declines invitation

The retirement of Justice Mary Joseph of the Kerala High Court has spurred controversy amongst lawyers with the Kerala High Court Advocates' Association (KHCAA) cancelling the farewell function it proposed to hold for the judge after she declined to attend the same citing prior assignments. .A notice to this effect has been issued by the KHCAA."The Secretary and members of the Executive Committee visited Justice Mary Joseph to invite her ladyship to the farewell proposed by the KHCAA. Justice Mary Joseph expressed her inconvenience due to prior assignments. The KHCAA therefore decided to cancel the farewell ceremony as it would be improper to hold a farewell ceremony in the absence of Justice Mary Joseph," the notice said.Meanwhile, the High Court would be conducting a separate farewell reference for the retiring judge. .The judge is set to demit office on June 2. Since that falls on a Sunday, the High Court scheduled a reference in her honour on Friday, May 31. However, unlike usual farewell references which are held in the Chief Justice's court room, this reference will be held at the banquet hall. According to a notification published on the High Court website, this was done at the request of Justice Joseph. Moreover, the customary speeches by the Advocate General and President of the KHCAA have been omitted from the programme. .The omission of the latter is largely understood to be the result of some controversial incidents between Justice Joseph and current KHCAA president, Yeshwanth Shenoy. .In February 2023, before Shenoy was KHCAA president, he appeared before Justice Joseph in a matter after which the judge wrote to the Bar Council of Kerala (BCK) alleging misconduct. The BCK issued a show cause notice to Shenoy following which he filed a petition challenging the show cause notice and alleging that documents were being leaked from the High Court Registry to news agencies.Shenoy also filed another petition challenging the curtailment of the list of cases before Justice Joseph to around 20 cases.At around the same time, the Court initiated a criminal contempt of court case against Shenoy. Shenoy then filed another plea seeking directions to refrain from listing the cases of advocate Prerith Philip Joseph before his mother who is Justice Joseph. These cases are at various stages now but the judge's relationship with the bar has been on shaky ground for some time..Once the reference function was notified on May 30, KHCAA wrote to the Chief Justice voicing its opposition to the omission of the AG and the KHCAA President from the ceremony. It also asked its members to boycott the reference function.The Bar body then issued a notice stating that it would be organising its own farewell function where Shenoy would be delivering a speech. However, Justice Joseph declined their invitation to attend the function, following which the event was cancelled. .However, the function organised by the High Court is scheduled to take place as planned at 3:30 pm today.