Plea in Kerala High Court seeks judge should not hear cases argued by her lawyer son

Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Monday sought the response of its Registrar General on a plea seeking directions to refrain from listing cases of advocate Prerith Philip Joseph before his mother and sitting judge, Justice Mary Joseph.

The court issued notice on the plea moved by advocate Yeshwanth Shenoy and posted the matter for further hearing next week.

In his plea, Shenoy claimed that advocate Joseph often visits the chamber of his mother despite specific orders of the Chief Justice of Kerala High Court restraining advocates from visiting any judge's chambers.

Shenoy submitted that Justice Joseph is bound by the Code of Judicial Ethics as contained in the "Restatement of Values of Judicial Life", adopted by the Supreme Court.

Incidentally this is not the first time that Shenoy is filing a petition against Justice Joseph.

In the first week of February, Shenoy had appeared before Justice Joseph in a case and later she wrote to the Bar Council of Kerala (BCK) alleging misconduct by Shenoy in the court.

Thereafter on February 14, the BCK issued a show cause notice to Shenoy.

Subsequently, Shenoy filed a petition challenging the show cause notice issued to him by the BCK and alleged that documents were being leaked from the High Court Registry to the media.

On March 7, the court, while hearing the said plea, directed its Registry to preserve the video recording of the court proceedings.

Also on February 27, Shenoy had filed another petition challenging the curtailment of the list of cases before Justice Joseph to around 20 cases, when most judges have over 100 cases listed before them each day.

On March 3, the court decided to hear Shenoy's plea on the matter first of maintainability.

Around the same time, it had also initiated criminal contempt of court case against Shenoy and also appointed senior advocate V.P. Seemandini to assist the court in conduct of the proceedings against Shenoy as per Rule 15 of the Contempt of Courts (High Court of Kerala) Rules, 1971.