"Legal profession not a joke": Kerala High Court pulls up lawyer in Habeas Corpus case after detained person's name missing in averments

The Kerala High Court on Friday pulled up a lawyer in a Habeas Corpus case after it noted that the prayers and averments in the petition did not contain the name of the detained person on behalf of whom the plea was filed..A bench of Justices Alexander Thomas and Sophy Thomas was miffed by the fact the lawyer had not included the name of the detenue in the averments in the petition. "Is this how you write an averment? Alleged detenue this, alleged detenue that, but no name in your plea. All the details are in the FIR though. See the difference between a police officer and a High Court lawyer," the Court remarked.The bench also took exception to what it thought was lack of a serious response by the lawyer to the bench's queries."Don’t laugh, advocacy is serious work. What will happen if doctors or surgeons take this sort of casual approach while attending to you? What if engineers do this while constructing your house," the bench asked..We all have this feeling that police people are good for nothing but they actually do a lot of good work.Kerala High Court.The Court also commended the Police department for the meticulous and detailed manner in which they write first information reports and scene mahzars. "All their (Police's) FIRs have meticulous detail even though they have tonnes of work. Take one scene mahzar and see the amount of detail. And we blame the police officers. They are so scrupulous in writing such documents. And they do this while they are dealing with law and order issues in the scorching heat. That we don’t see and appreciate. We all have this feeling that police people are good for nothing but they actually do a lot of good work," the bench said..People don’t have an option, that is why they rely on lawyers.Kerala High Court.The Court also reminded the lawyers that their work affects litigants and their faith in legal system."This is not a joke. People don’t have an option, that is why they rely on lawyers. They don’t have some adoration for the legal system. They simply have no alternative as this is their last bastion of hope. And if we don’t do that work properly, where will they go?" the bench asked.Note: The story was modified to reflect that the detained person's name was missing only in the averments and the prayer and not in the petition itself.