The State police have indicted at least 12 lawyers in connection with the "attack" on a woman judicial officer at her bench in the district court here on Wednesday.
The police on Thursday charged them with preventing the magistrate, Deepa Mohan, from discharging her duties. They have also booked the lawyers for rioting inside the courtroom, criminally intimidating the magistrate and confining her wrongfully for nearly two hours.
The accused included office-bearers of the Thiruvananthapuram Bar Association. The incident has threatened to balloon into a bitter confrontation between lawyers and judicial officers.
A set of lawyers have threatened to boycott the district court on Friday even as the judicial officers have sought the protection of the High Court from "violent activities, intimidation, threat of boycott and humiliation" at the hands of "the Bar".
A court official said women judicial officers had repeatedly flagged to their superiors that they faced a toxic atmosphere in courtrooms in Thiruvananthapuram for not allowing bail pleas or adjournments as desired by individual lawyers. They felt singled out for vilification for discharging their duties impartially.
The police case was that the lawyers had "assailed" Ms. Mohan after she denied bail to an accused on the charge of having intimidated a witness. They have sought the permission of the Chief Judicial Magistrate to prepare a crime scene report and record the statement of the judicial officer.
