In a startling revelation, Justice G.R. Swaminathan of the Madras High Court on Friday wrote that two highly placed persons met him in person and requested him not to decide on merits a habeas corpus petition filed against YouTuber ‘Savukku’ Shankar’s preventive detention under the Goondas Act.
Stating that “those emissaries would have achieved their object” if he had adopted the usual practice of ordering notice, returnable in six weeks, in such cases, the judge tested the preventive detention order on merits and quashed it on the ground of non-application of mind on the part of the detaining authority.
The judge said Greater Chennai Police Commissioner Sandeep Rai Rathore had passed the detention order on May 12 on the ground that there was an imminent possibility of the detainee coming out on bail in the criminal cases pending against him and therefore, he had to be detained under the Goondas Act.
Though the detainee had been arrested in three cases when the preventive detention order was passed, there was no reference in the order to a case booked against him by the Theni police under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985, the judge pointed out. Further, the detainee had not been granted bail, the judge said and added that he was also convinced that the acts committed by the detainee would not amount to infraction of public order necessitating the invocation of the Goondas Act against him.
However, sharing the Division Bench with Justice Swaminathan, Justice P.B. Balaji differed with the decision taken by the senior judge and said he was of the view that the habeas corpus petition should be decided on merits only after granting an opportunity to the State to file its counter-affidavit.
Following the split verdict, the judges directed the High Court Registry to place the habeas corpus petition before Acting Chief Justice R. Mahadevan for nominating a third judge who would hear the matter afresh and concur with either of the views taken by the judges of the Division Bench in order to break the tie.
Justice Swaminathan as well as Justice Balaji, however, were of the concurred view that Shankar must be transferred from the Coimbatore central prison to the Puzhal central prison in Chennai since there was a complaint of custodial violence leading to a fracture on his right arm.
NHRC inquiry
Disposing of a separate writ petition filed by the YouTuber’s mother, A. Kamala, seeking an inquiry by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) into the custodial violence, the judges directed the commission to take cognisance of the complaint made by the petitioner and take appropriate action within four weeks.
