MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court has recently set aside an order passed by the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) against six police personnel for allegedly torturing four Muslims who were booked by the SS Colony police on charges of throwing the head of a calf inside the RSS office in Madurai in 2011.
In the said order dated November 29, 2021, the SHRC had directed payment of Rs 1 lakh compensation each to the four ‘victims’, besides recommending disciplinary action against the six cops.
Hearing a joint petition filed by the cops challenging the said order, a bench of justices GR Swaminathan and R Kalaimathi noted that a criminal case was pending against the four persons in the same matter, and the trial is underway. The judges referred to Regulation 9(g) (of Tamil Nadu SHRC Regulations, 1997), as per which there is a statutory bar for the commission to inquire into complaints regarding matters which are subjudice before a court or tribunal. But in Para 23 of its order, the Commission had expressed the view that the complainants were illegally detained and forced to admit that they threw the cow’s head inside the RSS office, the judges observed.
“The Commission had virtually pronounced a judgment of acquittal. Such an approach constitutes an egregious breach of the sub judice rule. It is only the criminal court that can pronounce on the guilt or innocence of the accused. The Commission could not have dealt with the matter in a manner to cast a cloud on the criminal prosecution,” they said. Further noting that the petitioners, who were part of a special team of 12 cops, had merely arrested the complainants and handed them over to the SS Colony police, from whom the case was later transferred to the CBCID, the petitioners’ role in the criminal case against the complainants was minimal, the judges said and set aside the commission’s order. However, to ensure that the complainants are not left without remedy, the judges added that if the trial court, in the criminal case against the complainants, finds that the latter were victims of police torture, it should grant them suitable compensation.