Lawyers halt Kottayam court proceedings, shout abusive slogans at judge after advocate booked for forgery

A Magistrate Court in Kerala's Kottayam district witnessed chaotic scenes on Thursday as lawyers barged into the courtroom protesting the registration of a first information report against an advocate. .The sloganeering lawyers managed to halt the proceedings before Chief Judicial Magistrate Viveeja Sethumohan who proceeded to record the chaotic events in her order. According to the order, the President and Secretary of the Kottayam Bar Association were amongst the protesters. The magistrate said that there were over 200 lawyers and they were led by advocates Sojan Pavianiyos and Benny Kurian. It is also stated that the magistrate was not able to even reply to the protesting lawyers as they started shouting "po pulle, podi pulle, CJM ye" and continued to use abusive words. A video with Bar & Bench confirmed the slogans used against the CJM..The events stem from the registration of an FIR against advocate MP Nawab. The FIR was registered by the police after the Magistrate court forwarded a complaint filed by the sheristadar of the court alleging that advocate Nawab had created and submitted false documents to the court to get his client released on bail.Both the client and advocate Nawab were charged with offences punishable under Sections 465 (forgery), 466 (forgery of a court record or public register), 468 (forgery with intent to defraid, 471 (using forged document as genuine), and 34 (criminal act done by multiple persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC)..The FIR was registered on November 8.On Wednesday, November 22, the Kottayam Bar Association issued a notice stating that all advocates will be protesting the registration of the FIR and against the magistrate's allegedly poor conduct towards lawyers, The notice called for a boycott of court proceedings on Thursday. Unless action is taken to drop the proceedings against advocate Nawab within a period of 7 days, the boycott will continue, the bar association's notice stated. .The protests on Thursday spanned the entire corridor of the court complex and according to the magistrate's order there were a few persons with cameras recording the protest as well. The videos of the protest were also widely shared on WhatsApp within hours. The order stated that the videographers recorded court proceedings. When the police aid at court tried to intervene, the advocates turned against them as well, interrupting proceedings for 5 to 8 minutes, the order noted.