Court flays Government for casual approach to its directives

Chennai

First bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice R Mahadevan, noting that the report submitted by the Principal Secretary, Tamil Nadu State Legal Services Authority (TNSLSA) gives a grim picture of the prevalent situation, directed the state as well as TNSLSA to submit a report on the progress made and posted the case for further hearing to July 29.

As per the report submitted by the TNSLSA from 2012-2015 as many as 264 custodial deaths were reported of which 127 are being dealt by the Home Department while the remaining 137 are being dealt by the Public Department. Of them, death reports have been received in just 124 cases while reports are yet to be obtained in as many as 140 cases. Also, final orders have been issued in a mere 67 cases, compensation sanctioned in just three cases and action taken against erring staff in just two cases.

Even for the 2012-2013 period, raised by the petitioner in his plea, out of 137 such custodial deaths final orders have been passed in only 55 cases and compensation has been provided in just three cases. As many as 43 cases are still under progress.

The bench expressed surprise over the departments of Home and Public department blaming it on some difficulties in getting the copy of the inquest reports from the judicial magistrates and said the legal position was quite clear _“the magistrate after completing the enquiry shall furnish the copies of the statements and other documents collected by him to the Investigating officer as soon as the enquiry is over.”   

Thus there was no question of any difficulty in supplying the copy and if at all  such a situation had arisen, it should have been brought to the notice of the high court either on the administrative or judicial side. The authorities had however slept over the matter, the bench held. The petitioner, K Kesavan of Anna Nagar West, while referring to 1095 deaths that occurred from 2000 to 2013 the prayed for a judicial inquiry preferably by the district judge into the deaths that occurred inside of the prison particularly during 2012 and the prisoners who died in 2013.

Government slammed

The bench slammed the government for its casual approach while dealing with court directives and threatened to summon the principal secretary if he failed to file the affidavit on the issue.

The bench pointed out that as far back on December 2, 2015 an order seeking an explanation as to why the principal secretary had not filed the affidavit even after eight weeks.