Kerala High Court to hear case against 12 lawyers for gheraoing magistrate.

Source – thenewsminute.com

Intervening in the peculiar incident of a group of lawyers gheraoing the magistrate of Thiruvananthapuram District Court, the Kerala High Court on Thursday took case against 12 lawyers. Lawyers of the Thiruvananthapuram Bar Association have been booked by the High Court for gheraoing magistrate Deepa Mohan in her chamber on Wednesday.

The High Court’s intervention comes after the Kerala Judicial Officers’ Association wrote to the court Registrar General about the way Thiruvananthapuram Judicial First Class Magistrate Deepa Mohan was humiliated.

It was on Wednesday that the lawyers of Thiruvananthapuram Bar Association gheraoed the magistrate in her chamber, irked by the her ruling remanding a bus driver of Kerala RTC for injuring a woman due to rash driving. The lawyers expressed their resentment for not granting the accused bail by going en masse to the magistrate’s chamber.

“The unfortunate incident happened on November 27, 2019 whereby Deepa Mohan, Judicial First Class Magistrate, Thiruvananthapuram, suffered humiliation and overt acts from some of the office bearers and members of the Thiruvananthapuram Bar Association which may amount to wrongful confinement, criminal intimidation and obstruction to discharge official duty,” reads the complaint.

The complaint by the Kerala Judicial Officers’ Association on behalf of magistrate Deepa Mohan, also reads that the High Court should intervene on the ‘judicial side to ensure an atmosphere to the judicial officers to function in a free, fearless and independent manner’. “We express our anguish and protest against wrongdoers and expect appropriate action from the High Court of Kerala to safeguard the independence of the members of the Subordinate Judiciary,” it added.

Though it was reported that the lawyers even allegedly locked up the magistrate in her chamber, office bearers of Thiruvananthapuram Bar Association have denied this.

Magistrate Deepa Mohan is learned to have also given a written complaint to the Chief Judicial Magistrate and on Thursday, her complaint was forwarded to the local police station, which registered a case against the 12 lawyers under non-bailable charges.

The High Court will consider the case on Friday.