Advocates end court boycott, efforts on to settle cases

Thiruvananthapuram: The advocates of Thiruvananthapuram Bar Association stopped boycotting the court of judicial first-class magistrate – I, Deepa Mohan and some of them even appeared for cases on Friday.

However, office bearers of the association made it clear that this did not mean that the conflict between the advocates and the magistrate had ended. Both sides had filed complaints against each other, and the cases are pending before the police. “We decided to end the boycott as the public is being affected,” said Thiruvananthapuram Bar Association president advocate KP Jayachandran. He said that JFMC-I was a court that dealt with a plenty of cases each day and the continued non-cooperation of advocates would affect clients adversely, he said.

Earlier this week, office-bearers of state bar council had urged the advocates to end the agitation amicably after holding talks with the state high court authorities. Jayachandran said that talks were continuing to settle the cases filed against each other.

Since the charges alleged in both complaints were serious in nature, it wasn’t possible to withdraw complaints and quash the FIRs. Instead, the option of settling the case through referral charge would be pursued. When the complainant in a case refuses to cooperate with the investigation by not giving a statement before investigators, police can file a referral charge before the court, stating that the probe cannot be continued and hence the case may be closed.

On November 27, a conflict arose between advocates and the magistrate after the latter cancelled the bail bond of a transport bus driver involved in an accident case and remanded him in prison for allegedly trying to intimidate the key witness in the case. A sessions judge granted him bail on the same day. Advocate of the accused reported the matter to the bar association, who allegedly restrained the magistrate in her chamber as a mark of protest. The magistrate was released only after the chief judicial magistrate intervened. Following this, the magistrate filed a complaint before the police against the 12 advocates. A managing committee member (also a woman) of the bar association filed a case against the magistrate alleging physical harassment the next day.