Mayor M. Anilkumar and Congress councillor Deepthy Mary Varghese were locked in a war of words at the Kochi Corporation Council meeting held on Tuesday.

Ms. Varghese’s comment on the recent observation by the Kerala High Court sparked off the heated exchange between the two. Justice Devan Ramachandran had on Monday lauded the Corporation for effectively tackling waterlogging citing how the city was mostly spared of inundation despite heavy rain.

The Congress councillor said that simply because there was no waterlogging near Justice Ramachandran’s house, it did not mean that was the case across the city and expressed surprise at the court’s observation.

At this point, Mr. Anilkumar intervened urging Ms. Varghese to avoid insulting the court. This did not apparently go down well with the councillor, and she accused the Mayor of misinterpreting her words. She insisted that the criticism was directed at the judgment and not the judge.

The Mayor said there was no point in getting irritated when the court had good things to say about the Corporation. He further said that the Congress party that enforced Emergency in the country had no right to pass comments on democracy and the judiciary. Following this, Ms. Varghese trained her guns on the Mayor by criticising him who in turn commented about the councillor’s standard.

The ruling LDF councillors were also up in arms against Ms. Varghese against her alleged personal criticism of the Mayor. Mr. Anilkumar later intervened to restore decorum at the council meeting.