CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Tuesday ordered the setting up of a one-man commission under Justice V Parthiban, retired judge of the court, to inquire into allegations of assault on 13 lawyers and law students by police during the midnight arrest of sanitary workers on August 13.
A division bench of Justices MS Ramesh and V Lakshminarayanan passed the order while hearing the habeas corpus petitions filed by lawyers and law students who alleged that they were illegally detained by police and subjected to custodial torture.
“This certainly requires an independent inquiry,” the bench said, adding that an allegation of assault made against a police officer cannot be investigated by the very same police, who have registered the FIR, as there is a possibility of partiality or bias.
“At the same time, the real fact that had taken place in the wee hours of 14.08.2025 also needs to be unfolded for us to arrive at a conclusion on the allegation of unlawful and illegal detention made by the petitioner. For this, we request retired Justice V Parthiban to act as a fact-finding, one-man commission on the issue of whether the detenues were assaulted by the police post their arrest,” the bench said.
Directing the commissioner of Chennai police to pay an initial honorarium of Rs 2 lakh to the commission, the bench asked the panel to submit a report as expeditiously as possible.
The lawyers were released on bail by the court on August 14. One of them, Aarthy alias Nilavu Mozhi, had filed a sworn affidavit in the court alleging that she was subjected to custodial torture, along with law student Valarmathy, at the Chintadripet police station.
Though Aarthy was allegedly admitted in a government hospital as an in-patient for three days and her name is also recorded in the accident register, no complaint has been registered by the police, the bench said.
On the other hand, a complaint has been registered against some of the detenues for allegedly assaulting and abusing police personnel, the bench noted. The truth behind these allegations and counter-allegations gains significance, since further adjudication on the petitioner’s claim that the detenues were unlawfully detained is yet to be made.
The legality of the arrest can be gone into at a later stage, the bench said. “While the police are entitled to arrest persons for infraction of laws, they are certainly not entitled to assault those who have been arrested,” the bench remarked.
Pointing out that the first bench of the court had specifically directed that the police must exercise restraint to disperse the protesters, the bench said Aarthy and Valarmathi allege that they had been brutally beaten to the extent of both of them becoming unconscious and one of them being admitted in a government hospital and treated as in-patient for three days while the other is still under medication.