Plea Before Kerala High Court Seeks To Restrain Judge From Hearing Matters Having Son's Vakalat

A plea has been filed before the Kerala High Court by Advocate Yeshwanth Shenoy to not list matters before the bench of Justice Mary Joseph in which her son, Advocate Prerith Philip Joseph has vakalat.

The plea states that the Registrar General of the High Court that has authority over all departments of the Court, including the Registry and the listing department, has failed to ensure that no cases filed by Advocate Prerith Philip Joseph are listed before his mother Justice Mary Joseph.

The petitioner has argued it was also the responsibility of Justice Mary Joseph to act in accordance with the 'Restatement of Values of Judicial Life' charter adopted by the Supreme Court on May 7, 1997 and avoid the matters filed by her son. The charter ‘serves as a guideline for a just and impartial judiciary, promoting the equitable administration of justice’ the petition states.

The petitioner claims that Adv. Joseph has free access to the judge’s chamber of his mother. The petitioner is aggrieved by the non-compliance of the protocol registering the names and times of individuals entering and leaving the Judges' chambers. In this regard, the petitioner has sought a direction from the court to restrain Adv. Joseph from entering the chambers of Justice Mary Joseph.

When the matter came up on Monday before a single bench of Justice Shaji P Chaly, notice was issued to the Registrar General.

The matter has been posted for further consideration on 10th April 2023. 

The Court had previously initiated suo motu contempt proceedings against Adv. Shenoy for his alleged misbehaviour in the court of Justice Mary Joseph on February 9, 2023. 

Shenoy later filed a writ petition challenging the show-cause notice issued by the Bar Council of Kerala over the alleged incident before Justice Mary Joseph. Subsequently the court had issued an interim order directing the preservation of the audio-video recordings of the proceedings which took place in the court of Justice Mary Joseph on the day of the alleged incident.

In the present plea, Adv. Shenoy claims that on February 9, Advocate Philip visited Justice Joseph's chamber and persuaded her to file a false complaint with the Bar Council Kerala and with the Chief Justice against Shenoy regarding his alleged misbehaviour in Justice Joseph's court.

Advocate Shenoy had previously also filed a writ petition alleging that Justice Joseph has limited the number of cases listed before her bench to only 20 matters a day, while other judges had 100 matters or more listed before them everyday. The lawyer had averred in his plea that the Chief Justice, being the Master of Roster, alone had the power to direct the Registry on listing of matters and that no Judge could interfere with the same or direct the Registry to curtail that list. The matter is pending before the court. 

Case Title: Yeshwanth Shenoy V Justice Mary Joseph

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