Retired Supreme Court judge B N Srikrishna will head a judicial panel appointed by the apex court on Thursday to probe the violence that escalated after the February 19 clash between lawyers and police inside Madras high court premises.
The Supreme Court said no armed police would enter the HC premises without prior permission of the Chief Justice and ordered that the police station inside the high court would remain shut though the state would continue to depute police personnel to provide security to the judges and the HC.
The first task at hand for Justice Srikrishna would be to identify police officials who ordered armed personnel to barge into the HC premises and brutally assault lawyers and submit a report to the apex court within two weeks.
To facilitate a fair probe, a Bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justices P Sathasivam and J M Panchal ordered transfer of four senior cops out of Chennai in addition to already transferred JCP Ramasubramanium. The others who would be shifted out are JCP Sandeep Rai Rathore and three DCPs — Sarangan, Prem Anand Sinha and Panneer Selvam.
The role of top cops — commissioner of police K Radhakrishnan, ADGP T Rajendran and senior IPS officer A K Vishwanathan — would also be under the scanner of the Justice Srikrishna panel.
The Bench did everything to accommodate most of the demands of TN advocates. It allowed the two committees, already constituted by the HC, to go ahead with its task of assessing damages to lawyers’ vehicles and the HC courtrooms during the police action on February 19. Appearing for the state, solicitor general G E Vahanvati said the Karunanidhi government was willing to put Rs 15-20 lakh each on two accounts — one for treatment of injured lawyers and other to compensate damaged cars.
After passing orders to soothe the ruffled sentiments and hurt ego of the lawyer community, the court asked one thing in return — withdraw the strike — but ended up disappointed as the lawyers hedged on the issue. ‘‘We have to go back to the members, apprise them and then decide on the issue of calling off the strike,’’ was the best they could assure the Bench.
HC sought special police station in 07
If the CJI was angry over the excesses on lawyers by police and had wondered how a fullfledged police station was functioning from within the Madras HC premises, the Tamil Nadu government turned the tables on him. Appearing for TN, solicitor general G E Vahanvati read out a judgment of the HC in 2007 asking the state to set up a two-storey police station within its precincts, which it directed could not be reduced under any circumstances. TNN
Source:- The Times of India 27 Feb. 09 Delhi P. 10
Source:- The Times of India 27 Feb. 09 Delhi P. 10
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