Police-lawyers fight against handcuffing lawyer, contempt petition filed in High Court

 The lawyer was allegedly attacked during his arrest, while in custody, there were protests and boycotts of courts by advocates across the state.

A Kerala High Court advocate has filed a contempt petition against Kerala Police officials for violating Supreme Court orders by handcuffing advocate Panambil Jayakumar, who was detained by Karunagappally police in connection with a road accident.

The lawyer was allegedly attacked during his arrest, while in custody, there were protests and boycotts of courts by advocates across the state. On Wednesday, the Additional Director General of Police issued an order to suspend four police officers including station in-charge Gopkumar ji.

On taking cognizance by the Special Public Prosecutor today, the matter was referred to Justice AK Jaishankaran Nambiar and Justice Mohd. Nias C.P. listed before the Division Bench.

The petition on behalf of the Respondents states, “The Respondents have openly violated the orders of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in President, Citizens for Democracy v State of Assam and others reported in 1996 KHC 3394:1995 (3) SCC (743) did. The law is a willful and willful disobedience to the directions of the Hon'ble Supreme Court.

By handcuffing an advocate, the respondents have directly challenged the authority and rule of law of the Hon'ble Supreme Court." The petition also states that the police have "literally slapped the face of the Hon'ble Supreme Court" by handcuffing a lawyer inside the police station and handcuffing a lawyer directly and undoubtedly challenging the power and glory of justice.

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It further states that when the State investigates the incident, a clear violation of the law cannot be treated as any other incident.

The petitioner- Yashwant Shenoy has prayed the court to summon the respondent-police officers and punish them for contempt of court. This comes after lawyers of the Kollam Bar Association and the Kerala High Court Advocates Association staged a protest against the police for allegedly attacking Advocate Panambil Jayakumar at Karunagappally police station.

According to lawyers, the advocate was detained on September 5 and assaulted inside the police station.

A police vehicle was damaged in a protest by lawyers inside the court premises in Kollam and the police alleged that a sub-inspector was injured in the incident. The police have registered a case against 65 lawyers in connection with the incident.

The Bar Council of Kerala had also called for protests by lawyers from across the state against the alleged police excesses.

Kerala High Court lawyers took out a protest march outside the High Court building and wore protest badges in the court.