Chennai: In view of the frequent recurrence of incidents of caste clashes in the state and as a preventive exercise, Madras high court has directed the state home secretary to issue orders circulating the National Human Rights Commission guidelines on arrest to the police force so that a guiding document is available to them on how to deal with such situations.
“We only hope that the aforesaid would help in eliminating and controlling possible future incidents of the like nature,” said a division bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice R. Mahadevan while closing a PIL from G.K. Mani, President, PMK, which sought to order judicial enquiry into the incidence of violence erupted at Marakkanam on April 25, 2013 and subsequent acts, events leading to illegal arrests and misuse of powers by the officials.
The bench said senior counsel for the petitioner submitted that with the passage of time tempers have been cooled and possibly better rationality prevails.
However, when something may trigger off another incident remains the challenge where there were deep caste divides in the society. The senior counsel referred to the research paper on “Human Rights and Policing”, which enlists landmark Supreme Court directives and National Human Rights Commission guidelines.
He also sought to draw the attention of the state government for guiding principles how police should handle provocative situations, the bench added.
He also seeks to refer to the “Code of Conduct for the Police in India” issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs and communicated to Chief Secretaries of all states and Union Territories and Heads of Central Police Organisations as also “United Nations Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials” adopted by the General Assembly Resolution.
“We do believe that this aspect needs attention in view of the frequent recurrence of such incidents in the state and as a preventive exercise. The Home Secretary should look into the aspect and issue government orders circulating the material at the ground level to the police force,” the bench said.
