Plea before Kerala High Court says Justice Mary Joseph should not hear cases in which her lawyer-son holds vakalat

The Kerala High Court on Monday sought the response of its Registrar General on a plea seeking directions to refrain from listing cases of advocate Prerith Philip Joseph before his mother, Justice Mary Joseph, one of the sitting judges [Yeshwanth Shenoy v Justice Mary Joseph & Anr.]..Justice Shaji P Chaly issued notice to the Registrar General on the plea moved by advocate, Yeshwanth Shenoy and posted the matter for further hearing next week. "Notice to Registrar General - the 2nd respondent - before admission," the Court said.The Court also dispensed with notice to the other two respondents - the judge and her son - for the time being.In his plea, Shenoy claimed that advocate Philip often visits the chamber of his mother, Justice Joseph despite specific order of the Chief Justice of Kerala restraining advocates from visiting any of the judge’s chambers.“The Respondent No.3 (Advocate Philip) has blatantly violated the orders of the Hon’ble Chief Justice of this Hon’ble Court that restrains advocates from visiting the chambers of the Judges,” the plea alleged.He further said that the Registrar General is duty bound to ensure that no matters in which the vakalat of Advocate Philip is found, should be placed before Justice Joseph.Shenoy alleged that advocate Philip visited Justice Joseph’s chamber on February 9 to convince her to file a false complaint with the BCK and also with the Chief Justice regarding Shenoy's alleged misconduct during the hearings.Shenoy submitted that Justice Joseph is bound by the Code of Judicial Ethics as contained in the “Restatement of Values of Judicial Life”, adopted by the Supreme Court of India.He alleged that advocate Philip sits in the chamber of Justice Joseph every day and abuses the staff of the Court.He, therefore, sought a direction to the Registrar General to strictly comply with the protocols required while visiting judge's chambers which requires the entry of the name of persons visiting the Judge.This is not the first instance of Shenoy filing petition against Justice Joseph.In the first week of February, Shenoy had appeared before Justice Joseph in a matter.Subsequently, she had written to the Bar Council of Kerala (BCK) alleging misconduct by Shenoy in the courtThereafter on February 14, BCK issued a show cause notice to Shenoy.Subsequently, Shenoy filed a petition challenging the show cause notice issued to him by the BCK and alleged that documents were being leaked from the High Court Registry to news agencies.On March 7, the Court while hearing the said plea directed its registry to preserve the video recording of the court proceedings..Interestingly on February 27, Shenoy had filed another petition challenging the curtailment of the list of cases before Justice Joseph to around 20 cases, when most judges have over 100 cases listed before them each day.On March 3, the Court decided to hear Shenoy’s plea on the matter first of maintainability.Around the same time, the Court had also initiated criminal contempt of court case against Shenoy and also appointed Senior Advocate Seemandini VP as counsel to assist the Court to conduct the proceedings against Shenoy as per Rule 15 of the Contempt of Courts (High Court of Kerala) Rules, 1971.