On Saturday, Principal District and Sessions Judge B. Kalam Pasha here reminded the Advocates of the criminality of their recent behaviour in the Court compound in connection with an incident in which the police had stopped a Mohiniyattom performance by Neena Prasad allegedly at the direction of Dr. Pasha.
Neena Prasad, in her Facebook post on March 20, had claimed that Dr Pasha stopped her show midway at the Government Moyan LP School, Palakkad. Her claims ignited a series of protests by different organisations, including the All India Lawyers Union. The lawyers staged a protest in the Court compound by singing and raising slogans against the Judge.
He had written to the president of the Palakkad Bar Association pointing out the illegality of disrupting the functioning of the court by taking out a protest in the court compound. He had also clarified that it was a DySP who caused the problem by “acting in excess”. Dr. Pasha in his letter said that his personal security officer had only asked to reduce the sound volume, and not to stop the programme.
“It was contempt of court,” Judge B. Kalam Pasha reiterated while addressing the inaugural session of a legal and academic training programme organised by the Bar Council of Kerala Junior Lawyers Welfare Committee here on Saturday. “The lawyers should be aware of the existing laws. Then only you can go for new laws,” he said referring to the lawyers’ action.
Judge Pasha said, “I found that even the office-bearers of the Bar Association were not aware of the fact that shouting slogans (in the court compound) will amount to contempt".
If taken up, the Collector and District Police Chief would have to personally remove the Advocates from the court compound, he said.
“If a lawyer is touched, it will be the judge who will be pained most. If you are shooting down justice, how can you preserve the majesty of law?” Dr. Pasha asked, quoting Valmiki’s verses.
Dr. Pasha praised the lawyers of Palakkad for their behavior in the court. “You are excellent inside the court. But you must remember that even if you go out of the court, you are still a lawyer…. A lawyer’s reputation is my reputation,” he told the lawyers, asking them to behave always in a dignified manner.
Judge Pasha also said that the bar and the bench (meaning lawyers and judges respectively) were not 2 sides of a coin. “The two sides of a coin cannot see each other. They are actually one side of the coin,” he said, reminding them of the importance of functioning hand-in-hand.
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