Independence Day celebrations in the Madras High Court Bench here turned more colourful on Monday with Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel taking over the responsibility of anchoring the occasion from the local police personnel who had been doing the job ever since the Bench was inaugurated on July 24, 2004.
Justice Nooty Ramamohana Rao, the administrative judge of the High Court Bench, unfurled the national tricolour and accepted the guard of honour. He also garlanded a life size statue of Mahatma Gandhi on the court campus and witnessed display of skills by CISF commandos, apart from cultural events, along with Justices R. Mala, S. Vimala and S.S. Sundar.
For the first time since the main court building came under CISF cover on July 4, all restrictions on entry into the court campus were relaxed and people were let in freely without frisking and insisting on identity cards and visitor passes. This enabled many school students, the regular visitors for such events on the court campus, to watch the celebrations without any hassle.
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The children were delighted to watch CISF commandos demonstrate how they could assemble advanced fire arms such as AK47 within a minute in times of emergency. There was also a demonstration on how the commandos had been trained to handle fire arms with a single hand so that they do not stay out of action even if they lose or suffer injuries on one of their arms during an encounter.
Their demonstration was followed by a blood donation camp organised in the in-house dispensary on the court campus and cultural programmes by court staff, law officers, advocates and their children.