‘Judges may not speak, but their judgments should speak loud and clear,’ goes an old saying and that is exactly what the Madras High Court Bench here did during the completion of its 11{+t}{+h}year by keeping the celebrations on Friday a low-key affair and choosing to speak its mind through a number of rulings in favour of victims of serious rights violations.
The series of judgments passed by the court in the last two months underscoring several shortcomings on the part of those manning the criminal justice delivery system and their failure to prevent prosecution of the innocent, have been hailed as the greatest achievement of the Bench, whose establishment here in 2004 was opposed tooth and nail by a majority of lawyers in Chennai.
On June 9, the court directed the State government to pay a compensation of Rs.6 lakh to a HIV patient who was made to undergo imprisonment for six years, nine months and 14 days since 2005 in an unconnected criminal case. Expressing shock over “serious violation of rights,” the court blamed the Dindigul police as well as the lower court for the fallacy.
While a section of lawyers welcomed the decision to order compensation, another section questioned the correctness of ordering compensation out of public funds.
During the course of arguments in the Bench, a woman lawyer asked: “Why should the State be ordered to pay compensation from tax payers’ money, My Lord? It is the police officers concerned who should be ordered to pay?”
Replying to her, Justice S. Nagamuthu said: “The State is the custodian of the fundamental rights of its citizens and any breach thereof by its servants should be compensated only by the State especially when there is no evidence on record to prove whether the petitioner’s prosecution was an act committed by the officials with a mala fide intention or was it a genuine mistake.”
On June 25, the Bench found that the Ramanathapuram police had prosecuted five innocent villagers who had no connection with the gruesome murder of a family of six, including four children, who were set on fire in a hut at Thoppuvilasai near Uchipuli in Ramanathapuram district on September 30, 2012.
Ordering a compensation of Rs.10 lakh to the five villagers incarcerated for 93 days before being let out on bail, the court said they would not have faced such ignominy if the lower court judges and public prosecutors had been vigilant.
On July 9, the Bench found that the Oomachikulam police here had imprisoned A. Murugesan of Vishwanathapuram in 2001 instead of K. Murugesan of Tiruppalai, who was wanted by the police since 1997 in a case booked under the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act.
On July 15, the Bench awarded a compensation of Rs.16 lakh to four individuals who were prosecuted by Tuticorin police between 2002 and 2007 for murdering a woman who was found to be alive in 2011.
“This episode in my considered view will be an eye-opener for the police in this State in the matter of investigation.
Commenting on the judgments, N. Ilango, treasurer, Madurai Bench of Madras High Court Bar Association, said they were historic verdicts which had added yet another feather in the cap of the Madurai Bench. “The judgements gain more significance since they had awarded compensation even to victims who had not approached the court seeking compensation,” he pointed out.
