Kochi: The lawyers skipped the sittings of a division bench of Kerala High Court for the second consecutive day on Thursday causing more embarrassment to the judiciary.
A division bench comprising Justice K.T. Sankaran and Justice K.P. Sudheendra Kumar asked the High Court registry to inform the clients about their absence and ended the proceedings in 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, Registrar-General S. Jagadees issued an order stating that the absence of lawyers should be informed to the Bar Council of Kerala suggesting action.
“In any case, where the counsel for the appellant does not appear, the absence will be intimated to the appellant and the matter will be reported to the Bar Council of Kerala,” the bench said.
It had heavily criticised the lawyers in a letter to the Registrar-General after no counsel represented their clients in 23 cases that were listed on Wednesday.
The extraordinary turn of events, the first of its kind in Kerala, became a topic of heated discussion among the lawyers. A section of them alleged that the cause list of the bench (2(B)) was not published on the court's website which caused their absence. Interestingly, there is a printed cause list prepared by the court. The other section argued that the lawyers could have appeared in court after the first day's incident.
The Kerala High Court Advocates Association continued to keep mum about the incident. Even after the bench expressed its displeasure on Thursday, there was no official response from the association either to the lawyers or to the media.
Mr John Varghese, president of the association, claimed that a decision would be made if a lawyer registers a complaint. The bench later in the day considered three criminal appeals and passed orders.
