Kerala High Court Forms Committee To Address Conflict Between Lawyers And Police

The Kerala High Court on Monday (9th June) constituted a committee to formulate comprehensive guidelines to address the issue of conflicts that arise during interaction between police and lawyers in the court premises. The Committee has the State Advocate General K Gopalakrishna Kurup, Director General of Prosecution TA Shaji, President of Kerala High Court Advocates Association Yashwant Shenoy and Senior Advocates Santhosh Mathew and S. Sreekumar.“.. for formulating a comprehensive guideline which will take into account the interests of all stakeholders such as the police personnel, the advocates and the judicial officers, we deem it appropriate to constitute a committee comprising of the Advocate General of the State, the Director General of Prosecution, the President of the Kerala High Court Advocates' Association and 2 Senior Advocates namely Sri. Santhosh Mathew and Sri S. Sreekumar” ordered the bench of Justice A. K. Jayasankaran Nambiar and Justice P. M. ManojThe Court was dealing with a suo motu case to deal with the instances of violence by police against the legal fraternity initiated after allegedly police officers attacked a lawyer on the premises of Ramankary Magistrate Court, Alappuzha. The case was initiated based on a letter to the Court by the Kerala High Court Advocates' Association.During the course of the case, the Court had ascertained the need to formulate code of conduct to regulate the conduct of law enforcement agencies in the court premises and other judicial authorities in the state. For this purpose, the Court had directed the State Police Chief to draw a road map for further discussion after consulting with the Director General of Prosecution. The State Police Chief was instructed to get the suggestions of various stakeholders namely the Bar Council of Kerala and the President of the Kerala High Court Advocates' Association.During today's hearing, the report of the State Police Chief was submitted before the Court. The report raised a question on how to define “court premises” in places where court and commercial establishments work in different parts of the same building. They also submitted that sometimes arrest has to be made in court premises in situations like attacking a judicial officer in the premises.The newly formed committee is entrusted with task of reviewing the report of the State Police Chief and giving suggestions to deal with the issue of lawyer-police conflict. The case is posted after 2 weeks for the feedback of the committee.Case Title: Suo Motu v State of Kerala and OthersCase No: WP(C) 32952 of 2024Click Here To Read/ Download Order

Kerala High Court Forms Committee To Address Conflict Between Lawyers And Police

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