Kerala high court judge Justice PD Rajan has punished two police constables with contempt for accidentally addressing him colloquially outside of court, ordering them to copy the police manual by hand as punishment while standing in court all day, reported Marunadan Malayali, other Malayalam media, the Indian Express and others.

Rajan had reportedly attending a festival at a temple in civilian clothing - a shirt and a dhoti - and in his private vehicle. Rajan had not identified himself as a judge, according to reports, when a policeman at the event addressed him as ‘chetta’ - the Malayalam equivalent of the Hindi word ‘bhaiya’ or elder brother.

On Monday, Rajan summoned the two constables, KR Raju Nath and Satheesh Babu, to the high court and forced them to write down the “duties and responsibilities” of police officers from the Kerala Police Act.

They stood in court between 10:15 am and 1pm, took a lunch break until 1:45pm and stood until the court wrapped up at 3:15pm.

The court had summoned police commissioner MP Dinesh to investigate the incident, while one of the policemen denied having misbehaved with the judge other than addressing him as ‘chetta’, which Rajan had then asked the policemen not to do.