Kerala High Court closes contempt of court case against Bar President Yeshwanth Shenoy

The Kerala High Court on Friday closed the contempt of court case initiated by the Court against advocate Yeshwanth Shenoy who is the current President of the Kerala High Court Advocates' Association (KHCAA).

The Court had suo motu initiated the contempt case against Shenoy based on a letter sent by the now-retired Justice Mary Joseph in February 2023 to the then Chief Justice of the High Court expressing displeasure over Shenoy's conduct in her court.

A bench of Justices Devan Ramachandran and MB Snehalatha today closed the contempt case after noting that the procedure followed by the Court for initiating the case was incorrect as Shenoy was not given a copy of Justice Joseph's letter.

Shenoy had previously moved a petition to discharge him from the case on the ground of procedural violations. One among Shenoy's contentions was that as per Section 14 of the Contempt of Courts Act, the proceedings should have been initiated by Justice Joseph herself since the incident occurred before her.

However, in June this year, a different division bench dismissed this contention, holding that the fact that the concerned judge did not proceed under Section 14 does not prevent the High Court from initiating suo motu contempt of court proceedings.

However, one of his contentions was left open for consideration at a later stage.

This contention was regarding the fact that the letter written by Justice Joseph was not a part of the material that was placed before it at the first instance.

It was placed before the Division Bench only after the bench issued an order based on Shenoy's objection to its absence. Shenoy also argued that the non-furnishing of this document before he had to file his counter affidavit is not a curable defect as his rights have already been affected.

Today, the division bench of Justices Ramachandran and Snehalatha concurred with Shenoy on this point and, therefore, closed the proceedings against him.