CHENNAI: Police play a vital role in maintaining law and order. Though they need to exercise caution while handling cases, they cannot be accused of human rights violations at the drop of a hat. It may turn out to be demoralising to the entire police force, the Madras High Court has said.
A division bench of Justices VM Velumani and R Hemalatha made the observations recently while quashing an order of the State Human Rights Commission that had directed assistant commissioner of police Lakshmanan to pay Rs 25,000 to Ramesh, a complainant, for alleged rights violations.
The bench also said there was no denying that instances of human rights violations occurred at police stations but every instance of a casual police inquiry cannot be termed as a human rights violation. The line that differentiates a casual police inquiry from an instance of breach of one’s human rights is very thin, the judges said.