The Kerala police have named two Thiruvananthapuram Bar Association office-bearers as the main accused in the high-profile case relating to the “attack” on a woman judicial officer while presiding over her Bench at the District Court precincts here on Wednesday.
In a First Information Report (Vanchiyoor PS Crime: 2642/2019) filed in the court here on Friday, the police identified the main accused as K. P. Jayachandran and Pachalloor Jayakrishnan. They are president and secretary of the Bar, respectively.
The development has ballooned into a bitter confrontation between lawyers and judicial officers.
A set of lawyers boycotted the court on Friday even as the Kerala Judicial Officers’ Association sought protection for its members from the Kerala High Court.
In a petition to the Registrar General, Kerala High Court, the officers had flagged “violent activities, intimidation, the threat of boycott and humiliation” at the hands of “the Bar” and inability to discharge their duties impartially.
The issue has also spotlighted the “toxic work atmosphere” faced by women judicial officers. At least two had told their superiors that they felt singled out for vilification by lawyers whose demands for granting bail or adjourning cases they were hardpressed to heed legally.
Police deployed
The police have been deployed in strength inside the campus and protection for judicial officers has been upped.
The Supreme Court had ruled that boycott of courts by lawyers was tantamount to a “closure of a judicial institution” and hence “unacceptable”.
However, a group of lawyers turned back petitioners, litigants, witnesses, government officials and those answering court summons, bringing the functioning of the district court to a near halt.
They also held a protest meeting. Lawyers had barred journalists from entering the court since 2016 and several were camped outside the gate to report the goings-on in the campus.
The police have also named 10 “identifiable” lawyers as co-accused in the case.
The FIR stated that the lawyers had unlawfully assembled outside the court of magistrate Deepa Mohan with the common intention of intimidating her into revoking an order.
Ms. Mohan had cancelled the bail of an accused person on the charge of having intimidated a prosecution witness in the case, earning the ire of the lawyers.
In its court filing, the police said the lawyers stormed the chamber and threatened to “haul the magistrate out of the courtroom and beat her”.
The crime occurred around 1.45 p.m. when the court was in session. The police said the Bar Association office-bearers cleared the courtroom of other attendees and asked everybody to leave the chamber.
They challenged the magistrate to come out and closed her courtroom from outside.
The police have also booked the lawyers for rioting inside the courtroom, criminally intimidating the magistrate and confining her wrongfully for nearly two hours.
The Registrar General of the High Court has sought a report on the incident from the Principal Sessions Judge, Thiruvananthapuram, K. Babu. The police have sought the permission of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Thiruvananthapuram, to inspect the crime scene and record the statement of Ms. Mohan.
