The Tamil Nadu government on Friday informed the Madras High Court that the Supreme Court was yet to dispose of a case on the constitution of police complaints authorities across the country and therefore, it had constituted such authorities, headed by the Home Secretary at the State level and by the Collectors at the district level, in accordance with the provisions of the Tamil Nadu Police Reforms Act, 2013.
Appearing before Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice N. Mala, who were seized of a couple of cases which insisted that only retired judges head such authorities empowered to inquire into complaints against police officers, Advocate-General R. Shunmugasundaram said the Prakash Singh’s case, in which the Supreme Court had passed certain interim orders, was yet to be disposed of.
However, wondering what was the difficulty in constituting a State Police Complaints Authority under the chairmanship of a retired High Court judge and the district-level authorities headed by retired district judges, the Chief Justice asked whether the government was afraid of retired judges. He was of the view that the authorities headed by the Home Secretary and the Collectors might not inspire the confidence of people at large.
Pointing out that the primary object of the constitution of such authorities was to inquire into grave complaints of custodial deaths, rape and torture, the Chief Justice said he had received a letter urging him to take suo motu cognisance of a custodial death that was reported in Chennai recently. However, the government itself stepped in immediately and suspended the police officials concerned, he said.
Senior counsel Satish Parasaran, representing one of the petitioners, A.G. Mourya of Makkal Needhi Maiyyam, informed the court that The Hindu had carried a report, ‘Tamil Nadu records most custodial deaths in South India’, on May 6 and that data showed that the conviction rate in such cases was abysmally low. Therefore, only retired judges should be appointed as chairpersons of the police complaints authority.
After hearing them, the judges adjourned further hearing by two weeks and asked counsel to ascertain how many States had constituted police complaints authorities under the chairmanship of retired judges. They also wanted to know all orders passed in this regard by the Supreme Court so far.
