Tamil Nadu: Contempt case against Singanallur police for nabbing person in court

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Monday took suo motu contempt against Singanallur police for arresting a person inside the court at Tirupur. The action was initiated in response to a letter addressed by the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Tirupur, to the Registrar-General of the Madras High Court on April 11, 2018. Observing that the action of police in such cases was against the Supreme Court guidelines, Chief Justice Indira Banerjee said the court would not tolerate such action of police personnel barging into court rooms to effect arrests at the cost of disrupting court proceedings.

The Chief Justice earlier questioned Government Pleader Rajagopalan as to how in a civilised society, they dared to drag the accused from the court. The First Bench comprising the Chief Justice and Justice PT Asha initiated suo motu contempt proceedings against the Head Constable, Robert, Inspector of Police, Muniswaran and driver of   Singanallur police station, Velan. 

The Additional Advocate General Manishankar submitted that the DGP was informed about the incident and assured the court that such things would not happen again. He said a status report would be filed with regard to the incident. The Chief Justice said that the accused was dragged even in the presence of the presiding officer and hence could not be condoned.