Kerala High Court orders three months' jail for Alathur SI who verbally abused lawyer

The Kerala High Court on Wednesday convicted a police officer under the Contempt of Courts Act for allegedly using abusive vocatives and shouting expletives at an advocate [Mahesh R v Anil Kant]..The Court also sentenced him to three months in jail for the offence.The Court, however, said that the sentence shall not be executed for time being on the condition that he refrains from committing similar offence for a year.Justice Devan Ramachandran handed down the sentence to the sub-inspector of Alathur police station, VR Rineesh. The Court emphasized that the ruling should serve as a warning to all police personnel about the consequences of disrespecting legal professionals."Every officer should hear this and know that the Kerala High Court has punished a police for contempt. Let this be an example to all," the Court said.The order was passed by the Court while dealing with a number of petitions concerning police misconduct including one filed by the Kerala High Court Advocate Association (KHCAA) which had called for a mechanism for the fast-track adjudication of complaints against police misconduct.The KHCAA's petition was filed in light of the incident in Alathur where SI Rineesh is alleged to have used abusive language against an advocate.The police officer had tendered an unconditional apology before the Court.However, the Court had expressed skepticism about the apologies rendered and even questioned the police force's blatant ignorance of earlier court orders and directives to curb such misconduct by the police..The police officer had then submitted a second affidavit offering an unconditional apology. However, the Court today observed that the apology did not carry the same weight as one made immediately after the incident would have."At least the 2nd affidavit of the first respondent, offers an unconditional apology though it is unfortunate that he chose to make a reserved and conditional apology in his 1st affidavit. As rightly argued by Sri Yeshwant Shenoy, learned counsel for the petitioner, the true mark of a proper apology is whether it was offered at the first instance, and going by such yardstick, it perhaps can be construed that the 1st Respondent was rather ingenious through his approach," the Court said..The Court sentenced him to three months of simple imprisonment, however it suspended the sentence on the condition that he shall not involve himself in any further actions which will amount to an offence under the Contempt of Courts Act for one year, after which the said sentence would lapse.Note: An earlier version of the story said that the punishment handed down was two months' imprisonment. The error has been corrected and is regretted..[Read Order]