Kerala High Court initiates contempt case against 29 lawyers in relation to protest, abusive slogans against judge

The Kerala High Court has initiated a contempt of court case against twenty-nine lawyers allegedly involved in a recent protest that halted proceedings before a magistrate court in Kerala's Kottayam district. .On November 23, sloganeering lawyers had barged into the courtroom of Chief Judicial Magistrate Viveeja Sethumohan and hurled abuses at her, while protesting against the registration of a first information report against a lawyer.Bar and Bench had reported about the incident on the same day. .The High Court initiated a suo motu contempt of court case in the matter on November 25. When the matter came up for hearing today, a division bench of Justices Anil K Narendran and G Girish remarked that the allegations against the lawyers were serious. The bench also said that it would watch video clippings of the protest in open court if necessary."There is also a video clipping. If found necessary, we will view it in open court. The allegations are very very serious," Justice Narendran said. The bench proceeded to direct the registry to issue a copy of the documents in the contempt case proceedings to the Advocate General..The lawyers' protests that took place last week were triggered by the registration of a first information report (FIR) against an advocate. The magistrate court had forwarded to the police a complaint filed by the sheristadar of the court alleging that advocate Nawab had created and submitted false documents to the court to get his client released on bail.Both the client and advocate Nawab were charged with offences punishable under Sections 465 (forgery), 466 (forgery of a court record or public register), 468 (forgery with intent to defraid, 471 (using forged document as genuine), and 34 (criminal act done by multiple persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).On November 22, the Kottayam Bar Association issued a notice stating that all advocates will be protesting the registration of the FIR and against the magistrate's conduct towards lawyers, The notice called for a boycott of court proceedings..The ensuing protests spanned the entire corridor of the court complex and the magistrate recorded the events in an order.In the order, magistrate recorded that the protesting lawyers were chanting "po pulle, podi pulle, CJM ye" and using abusive words.A video with Bar & Bench confirmed the slogans used against the CJM.The order stated that there were over 200 lawyers and they were led by advocates Sojan Pavianiyos and Benny Kurian. It was also stated that the President of the Kottayam Bar Association, advocate KA Prasad and its Secretary, advocate Tomy K James were amongst the protesters. All four of them are first among the 29 lawyers who have been arrayed as respondents in the contempt of court case initiated by the High Court..The matter will be taken up on Thursday, November 30..The protests had also caught the attention of a single-judge of the High Court a day after it occurred. The judge Justice Devan Ramachandran had taken strong objection to the incident and wondered how such incidents would affect the public perception of the legal community.