Two held for posting abusive comments against Madras High Court judge

CHENNAI: Two persons have been arrested for criticising and abusing Justice N Kirubakaran of the Madras High Court for his comments against the government school teachers who recently staged a protest.

Police arrested a retired government official Subash Chandra Bose of Perungalathur, an office-bearer of a government employees’ union and Murugan, 47, a resident of Thirumal Nagar in Palayamkottai near Tirunelveli, for posting offensive comments on social media.

Recently, thousands of government school teachers boycotted classes and staged a protest across the State, pressing various demands including scrapping the contributory pension scheme, implementation of the Seventh Pay Commission recommendations on a par with Central employees, setting right pay anomalies and 20 per cent immediate interim relief before the implementation of the Pay Commission recommendations. Justice Kirubakaran posed a question to the teachers how only five government school students made it to medical colleges this year in the State which has 22 government medical colleges. This provoked criticism from the protesters and was also taken to the social media where abusive comments were posted. Subsequently, Justice Kirubakaran had asked the police to trace the suspects for posting such comments.

An inquiry was conducted and Subash Chandra Bose and Murugan were arrested by the police. Meanwhile, the Palayamkottai police have registered a case against Murugan under the IPC sections 500 (punishment for defamation), 505 (1) (a) (whoever makes, publishes or circulates any statement, rumour or report with intent to cause, or which is likely to cause damage to any officer), and 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant). The duo will be remanded in judicial custody by a magistrate court.