The Madras High Court on Friday was shocked to hear from an advocate that many policemen in the lower cadre were being used as “babysitters, gardeners and dog trainers” at the residences of higher officials.
Justice N. Kirubakaran took serious note of photographs produced by advocate Elephant G. Rajendran to substantiate his claims.
Arguing a case related to use of orderlies in the police force, the lawyer accused S. George, retired Commissioner of Police, Chennai city, of using policemen to perform domestic work at his residence. He asserted that he had evidence to substantiate his claim and submitted a set of “confidential” documents for the perusal of the judge.
The advocate also complained about the misuse of government vehicles for personal work by family members of higher police officials.
He said the officers in the rank of Superintendent of Police and above do not face any threat to their life. Yet, they deploy personal safety officers (PSOs) and many other policemen for their personal work, he said.
“It is the Head Constables, Inspectors and Deputy Superitendents of Police who are the ground level officers who investigate serious crimes and it is they who face real threat to their life but unfortunately, the Superintendents of Police, who do not sign even a single charge sheet in any case, are provided with PSOs,” he said.
Two weekly offs
After hearing him, the judge directed Additional Advocate General P.H. Arvindh Pandian to ascertain the stand of the government on giving one weekly off to policemen and paying a day’s salary in lieu of another weekly off. He was of the view that policemen could not be treated differently when other government servants were entitled to two weekly offs.
The judge also wanted a chart comparing the monthly salary paid to policemen of different cadre with the salaries of other government servants of the equal cadre. He said policemen should be paid more than other government servants because they risk their lives to safeguard people and their nature of work was tough compared to others.
He adjourned the case to August 8 for knowing the stand of the government.
