Madras HC bins cops' plea against SHRC order
MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court recently dismissed a petition filed by three police personnel in 2006 against an order passed by the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) imposing a penalty of Rs 10,000 each on them for assaulting a man in a Thoothukudi police station.
The SHRC had imposed the penalty following a complaint lodged by the Thoothukudi District Committee of CPM, on behalf of the victim. The facts were that the victim, Ganesan, was summoned by Soorankudi police in Thoothukudi for inquiry in connection with a case.
When he had gone to the police station with his uncle, he was beaten up by the police and was only allowed to leave after he paid Rs 10,500 to settle the case. Ganesan suffered severe injuries and underwent treatment in a hospital as an inpatient. SHRC found three police personnel (now retired)--S Muthupillai, R Narayanasamy and KP Pasumpon--guilty and imposed the penalty. Challenging this, the trio moved the HC in 2006.
Hearing the plea last week, a bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay V Gangapurwala and Justice KK Ramakrishnan noted that the SHRC has arrived at the conclusion based on evidence. The government also initiated departmental inquiry against the trio and while the charges against Muthupillai were dropped, the other two were slapped with a punishment of reduction in salary for two years with cumulative effect, the judges added. Since the commission has come to a probable conclusion and no procedural violations were found, the judges dismissed the plea.