Expressing his displeasure over the protest by lawyers, Justice Kalam Pasha, the Kerala district judge who hit the headlines for allegedly stopping a Mohinyiattam programme, blamed Palakkad deputy superintendent of police P C Haridas in his clarification to the Bar Association, adding that he, too, was a “trained dancer and fond of art”.
In his two-page letter addressed to Palakkad Bar Association President Adv KK Sudheer, the judge claimed he was “pained by the allegations that he stopped a dance programme using the police due to religious reasons”.
“The DySP to whom the message was converted by my PSO to reduce the volume acted in excess of what I said and caused all the problem. Had this been known to the protestors, I am sure that such an issue would never have happened,” the letter said.
When News18 contacted Haridas, he responded with a message saying: “It is not true.”
News18 had reported earlier how the performance by renowned danseuse Dr. Neena Prasad was stopped midway on March 19. She had called it personally “humiliating” and “an insult to the art form and culture of Kerala”.
Calling himself a connoisseur of arts, Justice Pasha said he was trained in Bharatanatyam and Carnatic music. “I am very fond of art and cultural programmes and I have studied Carnatic music for 6 long years, I will not be out of context here to say that I studied Bharatnatyam even up to ‘Arangetram’ (the debut of a classical dancer on stage),” the letter stated.
Confirming that he had received the letter, Sudheer said, “There was no protest taken out by the bar association. There is nothing in the letter that needs action. If at all there is a need, we will discuss it with the managing committee and take a call. Some individual lawyers protested against the judge in what was a personal matter.”
The judge’s letter said that the lawyers in robes “shouting slogans on the court premises, in the vicinity of the court and disturbing the functioning of the court” could be held for contempt of court proceedings. He also pointed out that a “public prosecutor” was among the protestors.
Justice Pasha also alerted the Bar Association President on a High Court decision in the George Koshy versus State of Kerala in 2002, when protests organised by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) severely affected the functioning of some courts. In that verdict, the Kerala HC had held that “every judge and every staff of the court is a public servant, and every advocate is an officer of the court” and shall not obstruct their functioning and discharge of public duties.
Meanwhile, Neena Prasad responded to Justice Pasha’s reaction and said, “I do not wish to corner anybody and I only expressed my pain. I understand that the Jugde himself said he has been trained in Indian classical art, he will surely now understand what an artiste like me felt.”
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