The Kerala High Court Advocates' Association (KHCAA) has written to Chief Justice Nitin M Jamdar demanding an open court apology from Justice A Badharudeen for an interaction he had with a lawyer who had recently lost her husband..In its letter, KHCAA said that it has been inundated with complaints against Justice Badharudeen for some time."The conduct of Justice A Badharudeen is not isolated and by his conduct he has consistently lowered the reputation of the Judicial institution itself," the letter stated.The Association also said that the pent-up frustration building amongst lawyers was behind its decision to boycott Justice Badharudeen's Court today..The letter also stated that the Bar will accept any apology from the judge delivered in open court and move on from the issue."The Bar understands that it is human to err and the Bar has called upon Justice A Badharudeen to offer an apology to Advocate in the open court and assure the Bar that he would not repeat such insensitive behaviour. The Bar would be most willing to forgive and move ahead if Justice A.Badharudeen apologises for his conduct."However, in the event that Justice Badharudeen refuses to apologise in open court, the Association will have no choice but to initiate the in-house procedure. Until the in-house complaint is dealt with in accordance with law, advocates will refuse to appear before the court of Justice Badharudeen, the letter stated."The boycott of the Bar is because of the failure of Justice A.Badharudeen to conduct himself in accordance with the standards set up for a Judge by the Hon'ble Supreme Court. Unacceptable behaviour cannot be accepted because of the stature of a person, much less because the person is a Judge. This bar is making it clear that it will not accept 'disrespect'", the letter reads..The incident that triggered these events occurred on March 6, when a lawyer requested the Court to give her some more time to change vakalath as her husband, Advocate Alex M Scaria, had passed away in January this year.Senior Advocate George Poonthottam and several other lawyers practicing before the Court subsequently moved a resolution calling for an urgent general body meeting of the KHCAA.The resolution stated that Justice Badharudeen acted extremely uncharitably and that such conduct is not only unbecoming of the Bench, but also disrespects the memory of the late Scaria.After an urgent meeting conducted at 10 AM today, lawyers gathered en masse in Justice Badharudeen's court to demand an apology in open court. However, no such apology materialised. The lawyers subsequently boycotted Justice Badharudeen's court and the High Court published a notice stating that Justice Badharudeen would not be sitting today..After a meeting again at 1 PM, the Association penned the letter to the Chief Justice expressing its objection to Justice Badharudeen's conduct..The letter pointed out at the outset that both the KHCAA and the Bar Council of Kerala had, in February 2024, written to the then Chief Justice after an incident involving Advocate Jayakumar Namboodiri TV, whose request for adjournment citing a serious back injury was refused by Justice Badharudeen.At the time, the KHCAA had requested mandatory video recording of all court proceedings to curb unbecoming behavious from both the bar and the bench.That request has been reiterated in today's letter."All other High Courts which have virtual courts are either live streaming proceedings or atleast video recording all proceedings. In spite of the repeated requests of the Association, the High Court of Kerala has shied away from video recording. Mandatory video recording will go a long way not just to ensure transparency but also to check such misconduct on the part of the Bar or the Bench. Therefore, the Association once again requests that video recording be made mandatory in all courts and access to the video records be granted to all persons entitled to it on request", the letter stated..Bar & Bench confirmed earlier today that Chief Justice Jamdar had heard the lawyers' grievances and has agreed to speak to Justice Badharudeen over the weekend in an attempt to arrive at an agreeable solution.
