Kochi: The administrative committee of the Kerala High Court has decided to amend the dress code of the women judicial officers in Kerala enabling them to wear any dress of their choice in addition to the sari that has been official for the last 53 years. However, they will have to stick to the black-and-white colour combination to appear formally in the court proceedings.
Inaugurating a meeting of the Kerala Judicial Officers Association here, Chief Justice of the High Court of Kerala, Justice A J Desai, said that a decision in this regard had been taken by the committee and the order would be released soon.
The women judicial officers had earlier submitted a representation before the administrative committee seeking permission to wear churidar and salwar. Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Justice said that it was a matter of pride that 48 per cent of the total 474 judicial officers in Kerala were women. Justice Muhammed Mushthaque of Kerala High Court, A Sameer, vice president of the association, and C K Baiju, president of the Kerala Judicial Officers Co-operative Society also spoke on the occasion. Association president N Seshadrinathan presided over the meeting.
Call for honorary judges to handle petty cases
The meeting appealed to the High Court to give necessary instructions to the government for the appointment of honorary magistrates at both taluk and district levels to handle petty cases. “Such cases can be disposed of simply by imposing the fine as required by the relevant laws,” the meeting opined. About 70 per cent of the cases that remain undisposed in various magistrate courts are petty cases and if a new mechanism is adopted for the disposal of petty cases that will save a huge amount of time for the magistrate courts.
Currently, around 40,000 to 60,000 cases are registered in Kerala every day and all such cases except those disposed of by the police and the Department of Motor Vehicles are referred to various magistrate courts. The early disposal of the petty cases would also bring more revenue to the exchequer, the meeting opined. They also demanded the setting up of more family courts in the state and official vehicles for the judicial officers.