The Kerala High Court Advocates’ Association on Friday complained to Chief Justice Nitin Jamdar against Justice A Badharudeen, accusing him of insulting a lawyer at open court.
Advocates on Friday boycotted Justice Badharudeen’s court in protest against the alleged incident that took place Thursday. The association’s general body meeting held on Friday demanded that the judge apologise to the lawyer in open court.
The association alleged that on Thursday, the judge insulted advocate Saritha Thomas when she sought more time for vakalath as her husband Alex Scaria, who had accepted the brief for the case and appeared in a previous hearing, died in January this year. In response to Saritha Thomas’s request, Justice Badharudeen allegedly behaved in an insulting manner, asking “who is Alex Scaria”, and going ahead with the proceedings. Saritha Thomas, who was in tears at one point, then had to argue the case.
In the complaint to the Chief Justice, association president Yeshwanth Shenoy said, “The association has received several complaints from its members against Justice Badharudeen with regard to his misconduct and misbehaviour with advocates in the courtroom. Most of the complaints are about humiliation and insensitivity they face in the court of Justice Badharudeen. The conduct of Justice Badharudeen improved for a while, but unfortunately the association was inundated with complaints of his misbehaviour in recent times.”
The association, which met on Friday morning, was informed that Justice Badharudheen was ready to apologise to the advocate in his chambers.
However, “As the insult and humiliation happened in the open court, the apology also should be in the open court. The conduct of Justice Badharudheen is not isolated, and by his conduct, he has consistently lowered the reputation of the judicial institution itself.. We bring to your lordship’s attention the fact that this bar has not reacted in such an overwhelming manner before this and the reason for such overwhelming response is the pent-up frustration building up over a period of time,” the complaint said.
The association said that if the judge failed to apologise, in-house procedure would be initiated and until that is dealth with in accordance with the law, advocates would refuse to appear before his court.
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High Court Registrar-General G Gopakumar said Justice Badharudeen was on leave Friday. “It is up to the Chief Justice to take a decision on the complaint of the association against Justice Badharudeen,” he said.