Kerala Cabinet drops BJP-affiliated judges from senior advocates panel, citing political affiliations

New Delhi: The Kerala Cabinet has dropped two former High Court judges with BJP affiliations from the state's panel of senior advocates, according to sources present at today's Cabinet meeting.

Justice P.N. Ravindran, who retired from the Kerala High Court in 2018, and Justice V. Chidambaresh, who retired in 2019, have been excluded from the revised panel approved by the Cabinet on Wednesday.

Cabinet sources told Mathrubhumi News that the two judges' BJP membership was the reason behind their exclusion.

Both Ravindran and Chidambaresh had featured on the state's advocates' panel during Pinarayi Vijayan government's tenure, which began in 2021. That same year, both accepted BJP membership from Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman at a function in Ernakulam, and subsequently signed statements issued by retired judges aligned with the BJP and RSS.

CPM-linked advocates also removed

The exclusions were not limited to BJP-affiliated names. Cabinet sources said P.V. Surendranath, National General Secretary of the CPM-affiliated All India Lawyers Union, has also been dropped from the panel. Also missing is P.V. Dinesh, a former SFI leader and Left sympathiser who had represented the state government in several cases, a decision sources described as part of a broader reshuffle rather than a one-sided move.

Lavalin case lawyers make the cut

In a notable inclusion, sources said the new panel brings in Devadatt Kamat and M.R. Ramesh Babu, the two lawyers who had argued before the Supreme Court that former Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan should face trial in the SNC-Lavalin case, appearing on behalf of former KPCC president V.M. Sudheeran. Ramesh Babu currently also serves as the state government's Senior Standing Counsel.