The Madras High Court on Friday took strong exception to the participation of three retired judges of the court in an “unauthorised” Peace and Unity Padayatra, titled ‘Gandhi Forever’, taken out by a section of lawyers both inside and around the court campus to commemorate the Martyrs’ Day on Thursday.
Chief Justice Amreshwar Pratap Sahi and Justice Subramonium Prasad referred the issue to the Security Committee comprising Justices N. Kirubakaran, K. Ravichandrabaabu and P.N. Prakash so that it could deliberate upon it and give concrete suggestions on strengthening security on the campus.
During the hearing of a 2015 suo motu PIL petition related to extending CISF cover for the High Court campus, the Chief Justice told Additional Solicitor General G. Rajagopalan and Advocate General Vijay Narayan about Thursday’s “protest”.
The CJ said that “a very unfortunate incident” had been reported by a Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of security on the High Court campus, which houses several trial courts too apart from the main High Court buildings guarded by the CISF, to the Registrar General.
The letter read: “A group of advocates including senior counsel R. Vaigai... and retired High Court judges D. Hariparanthaman, K. Kannan and G.M. Akbar Ali assembled near Aavin parlour (inside the court campus), walked in procession to North Gate via Kuralagam, reached Esplanade Gate, entered inside and finished at Dr. Ambedkar statue.
“They were stopped and advised for their unauthorised activities but they refused to hear the police officers who were on duty. The report of the Inspector of Police, High Court Security, is enclosed for perusal. A video compact disc and photos (also in a CD) are also enclosed with this letter.”
After extracting the contents of the letter in their interim order on the suo motu PIL petition, the Bench led by the Chief Justice said: “Having noticed the said incident reported, what is of more concern is that the incident involves and names three former High Court judges having entered the premises and joined the protest that was going on.
“The gravity of the said incident, therefore, puts on guard the entire judicial system, as this may have a large impact on the future security measures that may be required to be undertaken by the High Court. The incident, therefore, requires an immediate concern to be taken up on the administrative side.
“We, therefore, request the Security Committee of the High Court to take up the matter urgently along with its suggestions and report the matter back for taking appropriate action on the judicial side or otherwise by the next date fixed.”
The Bench also requested the Security Committee to hold discussions with the CISF as well as the State police and come up with concrete suggestions on improving coordination between both the forces and ensuring a uniform security arrangement in the buildings and premises guarded by both of them within the High Court campus.
The committee was further asked to deliberate on the possibility of making the CISF cover for the High Court campus a permanent feature so that there was some certainty over the continuance of the central force and it could deploy its personnel permanently without having to wait for extension, through judicial orders, every now and then.
After finding that on October 21 last, a Bench comprising the then Acting Chief Justice Vineet Kothari and Justice C. Saravanan had ordered for continuance of CISF cover for the High Court until further orders, the Bench led by the Chief Justice adjourned further hearing on the suo motu PIL petition to March 2.
.png?w=600)
