The Madras High Court on Tuesday (September 2) constituted a ‘one-man commission’ headed by retired high court judge Justice V Parthiban to probe into allegations of police violence during the detention of lawyers and law students who took part in the protest organised by the sanitation workers of Greater Chennai Corporation.
The bench of Justice MS Ramesh and Justice V Lakshminarayanan asked the Legal Services Authority to provide assistance to the commission. The commission has been directed to probe into the allegations levelled by both parties and submit a report by the next date of hearing.
The lawyers and law students had alleged that the police had used excessive force while detaining them. The state, on the other hand, had argued that the protestors had caused damage to public and private property.
The orders were passed on a habeas corpus petition challenging the alleged illegal detention of lawyers and law students who had participated in the protests held by the sanitation workers in Chennai, challenging the Greater Chennai Corporation’s decision to privatise the sanitation work in some zones.
On 13th August, the Madras High Court bench headed by Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava had directed the State to take action to remove the protesting sanitary workers, who had been protesting in front of the Rippon Building for almost 12 days. The bench had noted that proper permission had not been obtained for the protest and thus asked the protestors to conduct the protest after taking due permission, not causing any inconvenience to the public.
Following this, on the night of 13th August, when the police tried to remove the protestors, it led to an altercation between the police and the lawyers and law students who had joined the protestors. Following this the lawyers and law students, along with protestors were detained by the police. The present habeas corpus petition was filed challenging the detention.
In an interim order, the court had directed the 4 lawyers and 2 law students to be released, after noting that their detention was prima facie unlawful. However, the lawyers and the law students were asked not to give any press interviews or statements or post anything on social media regarding the issue at hand.
