MADURAI
The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Tuesday ruled that the Principal District Judge (PDJ), Madurai, had the jurisdiction to try the Sattankulam custodial deaths case. The court was answering the criminal reference preferred by the PDJ, Thoothukudi, who sought a clarification on the jurisdiction to try the case.
A Division Bench of Justices M. Sathyanarayanan and V. Bharathidasan made the observation while dealing with the communication sent to the court in August by the Thoothukudi PDJ, who had sought a clarification referring to Section 177 of the Cr.P.C. (every offence shall ordinarily be inquired into and tried by a court within whose local jurisdiction the offence was committed).
In the communication, Thoothukudi PDJ N. Logeswaran submitted that while he had dismissed the bail petitions of two accused in the case, another accused had filed a bail petition before the Madurai PDJ, which too was dismissed.
He pointed out that in the bail petitions filed before the Thoothukudi court, the Public Prosecutor for the CBI had raised objections and said that the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM), Madurai, was designated to try cases investigated by the CBI, as per a court notification.
According to the Public Prosecutor, the CJM, Madurai, would commit the case to the Madurai PDJ after a final report was filed in the case.
