The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Friday modified a single bench order giving a series of directions to the Home Department and Director General of Police with regard to taking action against police personnel who indulged in collection of mamool or bribe.
A Division Bench of Justices T.S. Sivagnanam and R. Tharani modified the directions as an “advisory,” which shall be taken in the right spirit.
The court said that the directions were passed in a writ petition pertaining to a service matter and not a public interest litigation petition. The observations made were beyond the scope of the prayer in the writ petition, the court said.
The single bench had directed the Home Department and the DGP to issue consolidated instructions to authorities competent, to register criminal cases against the demand and acceptance of bribe under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Indian Penal Code.
The single bench passed the set of directions while hearing the petition filed by a policeman M. Ramasamy. He was issued a charge memo after a complaint was made against him for collecting bribe during a routine vehicle check on a highway in Kanniyakumari district.
An inquiry was conducted and the charges against him were proven. However, he claimed that he was innocent and sought to quash the order. The single bench refused him the relief. He filed an appeal against the single Bench order. Refusing him the relief, the Division Bench modified the order of the single Bench.
