Madras High Court Keeps In Abeyance Order Constituting Commission To Probe Allegations Of Police Violence Against Detained Lawyers

The bench of Justice J Nisha Banu and Justice S Sounthar kept the order in abeyance in a petition moved by the Commissioner of Police seeking to vacate the order.

Background

On 13^th 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 13^th 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.

In an earlier 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.

When the habeas corpus pleas were later taken up, 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.

On September 2, the bench of Justice MS Ramesh and Justice V Lakshminarayanan observed that the real fact had to be unfolded and an independent inquiry was necessary. The court had thus requested Justice (Retd) V Parthiban to act as a fact finding one man commission to probe whether the detenues were assaulted by the police post their arrest.

This order has now been kept in abeyance by the bench which is presently holding the portfolio for dealing with habeas corpus cases.

Case Title: Commissioner of Police and another v. S Vijay

Case No: Crl MP 16879 of 2025