The Kerala High Court has granted interim relief to a law student interning with a lawyer by directing the issuance of an entry pass in his favour to attend the Court proceedings. The Court was considering a petition challenging the restrictions imposed by the internship policy and also held that the larger issue can be decided later.

The High Court had amended its 2026 internship policy, limiting internship opportunities in the Court to law students who are in the final two years of their LL.B., which was notified on October 17, 2026. The High Court was considering a petition filed by an intern working in an Advocate’s office, challenging the new policy.

The Single Bench of Justice P.V. Kunhikrishnan held, “After hearing both sides, I think an interim order can be passed as far as the petitioner alone is concerned. The larger issue can be decided later. Therefore, there will be a direction to the respondents to issue a temporary entry pass to the petitioner, so that he can do the internship as per Exhibit P4 subject to all conditions in Exhibit P5 and also on a written assurance from the lawyer concerned that he is the intern of that particular lawyer.”

Senior Advocate Santhosh Mathew represented the Petitioner while Senior Advocate B.G. Harindranath represented the Respondent.

The Petitioner wanted to attend the Court with the Advocate, with whom he was doing internship. The Bench noted that the same was prohibited as per the Official Memorandum dated July 1, 2026 along with the internship policy, which was amended.

Considering the petitioner’s case, the Bench passed an interim order and directed the respondents to issue a temporary entry pass to the petitioner, so that he could do the internship subject to the conditions in the policy as well as the Memorandum and also on a written assurance from the lawyer concerned.

Cause Title: Austin Suney V. High Court of Kerala (Case No.: WP(C) NO. 35452 OF 2026(R)

Appearance

Petitioner: Senior Advocate Santhosh Mathew, M/S. Shinto Mathew Abraham, Advocates Veena Raveendran, Anil Sebastian Pulickel, Leah Rachel Ninan, Mathew Nevin Thomas, Karthik Rajagopal, Kurian Antony Mathew, Aparnna S., Noel Ninan Ninan, Adeen Nazar, Rohan Mathew, Saira Susan Jojoe

Respondent: Senior Advocate B.G. Harindranath, Standing Counsel S. Vishnu (Arikkattil)

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Kerala HCJustice PV Kunhikrishnan

Tulip Kanth

Assistant Editor

Tulip Kanth is an Assistant Editor at Verdictum having over 5 years of experience in the field of legal journalism and editing. She extensively covers judgments of the Supreme Court, High Courts as well as Tribunals. She has previously worked with a legal publishing website where she oversaw the work of other editors and has also created updates on notifications of different Government Ministries. She holds an English Honours Degree from SGTB Khalsa College, Delhi University and has completed her LLB course with specialisation in Corporate Law from Amity University.