Kerala HC Bar Association President Seeks CBI Enquiry Against Retired Judge, Says Release Orders Were Issued For Convicts In NDPS Cases Without Releasing Judgments Till Retirement

The President of the Kerala High Court Advocates' Association (KHCAA), Yeshwanth Shenoy has written a letter to the Chief Justice of India seeking enquiry by the CBI against Justice Mary Joseph of the Kerala High Court who retired earlier this month.

In the letter also marked to the Chief Justice of the Kerala High Court, the Ministry of Law and Justice and the Director of CBI, Shenoy says that Justice Joseph heard appeals filed by three out of four convicts in an NDPS case and reserved judgment in October, 2021. He alleges that the appeals were allowed and the convicts were then released from prison on the basis of release orders in August 2023, but that the Judgments were not released till the retirement of the judge, earlier this month.

He also says that the appeals of three out of the four convicts in the same case were heard and allowed, but the fourth appeal has not been heard till date. The conviction of the fourth convict was suspended by another judge in September 2023, after the said convict moved the court for suspension of sentence based on the setting aside of the conviction of other convicts. The judge who suspended the conviction of the fourth convicted noted in the order that the copy of the judgment of reversal of the conviction of the other convicts is not uploaded and hence is not available.

"The trial Court in another case had convicted two persons in an NDPS case. Both filed separate appeals viz. Crl.A 322/2021 and Crl.A 545/2021. The status of these cases is annexed as Annexure-C colly. This also got special treatment but what is strange is that even when both these cases arose from the same judgment, the matters were heard separately and order was reserved on 31.07.2023. The convicts were released on 1.08.2023 itself on release order without Judgment. Till the date of retirement of Justice Mary Joseph, i.e 2 June 2024 no Judgment was passed", the letter written by Shenoy in his personal capacity says.

Shenoy also blames the Law Officers of the state. "The role of State Law officers needs no explanation. The five cases pointed out alone is sufficient to point out their absolute failure. This failure is willful because they did not just fail in leading arguments, but what they failed is in bringing the attention of the court that there is a 4th accused who also need to be roped in while hearing only 3 appeals. They failed when the court heard the two appeals from the same judgment on different dates", he says in the letter.

He says in the letter that the role of State Law officers should not be brushed aside as negligence and that he is analysing more orders and that he has enough materials to point out the existence of a power ‘narcotics lobby’ in the state.

Shenoy says that after the retirement of Justice Mary Joseph, she continued to visit her chambers in the High Court of Kerala and continued writing Judgments. He also says that he had addressed a letter to the Chief Justice of the High Court earlier this month pointing out this fact.

"After having allowed the applications, Justice Mary Joseph did not write the Judgement for 10 months and finds time to write them after retirement. This has been held to be gross Judicial impropriety by the Hon’ble Supreme Court in State Vs. Naresh Prasad Agarwal & otrs [Order dated 13 Feb 2024 in SLP (criminal) No. 2210-2211 of 2024]. The Hon’ble Supreme Court was pleased to quash and set aside the order in that case", the letter says.

Shenoy alleges in the letter that Justice Joseph has applied for several post-retirement jobs and links the same to her decision in an election petition, in which the judgment was not published till retirement.

In the detailed letter, Shenoy refers to his earlier complaints against Justice Mary Jopseh. "Justice Mary Joseph was elevated as a Judge of High Court of Kerala on 10.04.2015 when both her ‘integrity’ and ‘ability’ were questioned. I have been informed that Justice Mary Joseph dealt only with abkari matters and did not write a single judgment involving murder or a single contested civil appeal. Yet she made it to ‘selection grade’".

He seeks the following from the CJI, in his letter:-

"A. Suo Motu call for the judgments in these cases and quash and set aside the orders in the five NDPS criminal appeals. B. Refer the case of Justice Mary Joseph to the Central Bureau of Investigations to investigate the nexus between the Judge and the ‘Narcotic lobby’. C. Call for a report from the Chief Justice of the High Court of Kerala that would show when these judgments were prepared and signed (All computers will show when the document was prepared and when the print outs were taken) and all officials responsible for the same and take disciplinary action against those registry officials."

The KHCAA had boycotted the official farewell function for Justice Mary Joseph.

Click here to read/download the letter