“Legal professionals should reach out to the common man and help the poor and those in the grassroots level,” said Justice A. Muhamed Mustaque. He was speaking at a function held in Kochi to enrol advocates to the Bar Council. Justice Mustaque said that advocates had a duty to uphold democracy by lending their services to the poor and those in villages.
“Even disputes related to payment of tax are coming to the High Court as writ petitions. We need to think about setting up administrative courts in each district to address these complaints,” Justice Mustaque said.
As many as 281 law graduates enrolled in a function at which they took an oath to “uphold the dignity of the legal profession.”
Among the hundreds of law graduates, who enrolled to become advocates at the High Court auditorium in Kochi on Sunday was a woman who had spent 36 years in the judiciary services.
N. Leelamani, who retired as Judge of the Ernakulam Family Court in May this year, is now ready to embark on a different career in law, this time as an advocate. Another law graduate who enrolled at the ceremony was 25-year-old Indulekha Joseph. She had fought legal battles all the way to the Supreme Court after she was dismissed from St. George College, Aruvithura, in 2007, allegedly in retaliation against a book written by her father criticising the Catholic Church’s management of money.
Having enrolled as an advocate, Indulekha now hopes to take her fight seeking accountability in the Church further.
“I want to handle all kinds of cases. But I will take up issues of people who have suffered like I have,” she said. Among those who enrolled on Sunday were Fr. Thomas Paul Ramban of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, Fr. Boby Cheriyil of the Udupi Ajekar Knanaya Catholic Church, and V.K. Prasad, former president of the Federal Bank Officers’ Association.
