All is not well in Kerala HC: Battles brewing between Advocate General and judge, brother judges

An otherwise quiet court nestled near a bird sanctuary with the panoramic Arabian Sea on its west, the High Court of Kerala is now grappling with two, major controversies. And the unprecedented nature of these controversies have received significant media attention, bringing to the fore rifts within the Bench and the Bar..While one issue pertains to the pressure allegedly exercised by the Advocate General on the Chief Justice, the other is an allegedly sour relationship between two judges for which an arguing counsel had to bear the brunt..Advocate General v. Sitting Judge.Advocate General (AG) Dandapani’s office has been embroiled in controversy for some time now. The latest incident is Justice Alexander Thomas’ criticism of the AG’s office for its lacklustre functioning and his remark that AG’s office should take lessons from the office of the Advocate General of Tamil Nadu..Justice Thomas was apparently unimpressed by the non-implementation of the court’s directions in various matters..“Here we have 120 government pleaders and the majority of them are nominees of somebody, including abkaris (liquor contractors)… Even those at the top of the advocate general’s office are nominees of somebody, including abkaris, and the present situation is due to this.”.Subsequently, the government pleaders protested against the same and wrote to Chief Justice Ashok Bhushan asking him to intervene in the matter alleging that Justice Thomas was making sweeping generalisations and assertions with regard to the functioning of government lawyers..The matter did not end there. In another case, Justice Alexander Thomas directed the Chief Secretary to conduct an enquiry into the failure by AG’s office to provide information in a Vigilance case. The news reports that followed stated that the Chief Justice had called for a report from the Registry in this case. However, Registrar General Ashok Menon then issued a clarification stating that no such report has been called for by the Chief Justice from the Registry..Amidst all these, rumours started surfacing that Justice Alexander Thomas might be shunted to a different jurisdiction due to pressure from the AG. Around 76 lawyers are planning to move a resolution before the Kerala High Court Advocates Association requesting the Chief Justice to desist from this move. The resolution, which has not been tabled yet, states:.“The Association expresses its grave concern on the reported move of the Advocate General Sri. KP Dandapani and his family members in attempting to persuade and pressurise the Hon’ble Chief Justice of Kerala to shift the bold and independent judge Sri. Justice Alexander Thomas to some other jurisdiction and request the Hon’ble Chief Justice to desist from such a move at present.”.The dramatic events did not end there..Dandapani, coming to know of this proposed resolution, wrote to the President of the Association submitting that the contents of the resolution are false and the attempt to move the resolution has been made by a “certain group” to tarnish the image of his family members..“I wish to inform that the contents of the proposed resolution is highly incorrect and baseless in as much as there has never been any attempt either on my part or on the part of my family members to persuade Hon’ble Chief Justice for changing the jurisdiction of any of the judges. The present attempt to move a resolution of this nature …. is also with other ulterior motives by a certain group of lawyers, one of whom has professional animosity towards my son for having conducted case against him..…..I also wish to inform the Association that the Hon’ble Chief Justice being the master of roster, moving such a resolution would also interfere with the administration of justice which per se would amount to criminal contempt of court..According to sources, the request by Dandapani has been rejected by the Association today. A General Body meeting of the Association would now be convened on August 10, i.e. coming Monday, to consider the resolution..Sitting Judge v. Sitting Judge.This particular controversy pertains to a remark made by Justice KT Sankaran regarding the arguments of a senior lawyer and a dig at another sitting judge of the High Court..Advocate NA Muralidharan was arguing a case which was referred by a single judge to a Division Bench presided by Justice KT Sankaran. After hearing him for one and a half days, Justice Sankaran is alleged to have remarked that,.“You wasted one and a half days of this court. I cannot catch any single point. It is a sheer waste of time.”.Subsequently, when another lawyer quoted a precedent decided by another sitting judge Justice Kemal Pasha, Justice Sankaran remarked that.“Hereafter you need not argue any PFA case. You affix the photograph of Kemal Pasha on all cases before filing.”.The advocate, who has 47 years standing at the Bar, then filed an application highlighting these remarks by the judge and requesting that the matter be placed before the Chief Justice so that he can allot it to “any other appropriate Bench”. In that application, the lawyer stated the following:.“I regret to submit that during the last 47 years of my profession as an advocate, none of the honourable judges have meted out such an uncharitable treatment to me. I have every reason to believe that the presiding judge has personal bias against me as otherwise the learned senor judge would not have made the comment that he could not even comprehend any single point canvassed by me….the learned senior judge has become unable to act impartially, objectively and without any bias.”.This application came up for hearing before the same Division Bench presided by Justice Sankaran who sent the matter to the Chief Justice observing that the Chief Justice could decide on who should hear the matter further..Members of the Bar have expressed great disappointment over the recent events..“I am very disappointed and sad with the attitude of the judges. Their acts have degraded the status of the judiciary”, said Advocate Joseph Rony Jose, member of the Executive Committee of the High Court Advocates Association..This is unchartered territory for Kerala High Court. It remains to be seen how the Chief Justice will handle these two issues, and how the Bar will respond to the eventual decisions of the Chief Justice.