MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court on Wednesday issued notice to the State Home (Police) Department and the Director General of Police (DGP) on a PIL filed against a gazette notification which made prior sanction from the government mandatory to prosecute state police of all ranks and categories for any offence allegedly committed by them while on duty.
A Vivekanandan, an advocate from Thoothukudi, stated in his petition that the above notification published in the Tamil Nadu Government Gazette Extraordinary, via GO dated December 3, 2025, is a colourable exercise of power that seeks to equate the entire State Police Force with the Armed Forces of the Union.
The notification was published in exercise of the powers conferred on the state government by Section 218 (3) of the BNSS.
According to Section 218 (2) BNSS, no court can take cognisance of any offence alleged to have been committed by any member of the Armed Force of the Union while discharging their duty, except with prior sanction of the central government.
Clause (3) of the section says that the state government too may, by notification, apply the above protection to members of the forces charged with the maintenance of public order by substituting the words ‘central government’ with ‘state government’.
However, the petitioner opined that the above provisions were meant for personnel deployed in extraordinary situations like riots, anti-terror operations, etc, similar to the specialised status granted to the ‘Q’ branch CID.
By extending this shield to the entire police force, including those engaged in routine administrative, traffic or clerical roles, the state government has violated the Doctrine of Proportionality and granted blanket immunity to the entire police force across all cadres, he alleged.
A bench of justices G Jayachandran and KK Ramakrishnan issued notice and adjourned the case for six weeks.