Madras HC wants to extend CISF cover to entire campus

The court was listening to a PIL, which sought to prevent protests and agitations in the court premises.
Madras HC wants to extend CISF cover to entire campus
Madras HC wants to extend CISF cover to entire campus
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A full bench of the Madras High Court comprising Justices M Sathyanarayanan, MM Sundresh and TS Sivagnanam have recommended that Chief Justice Indira Banerjee consider extending the CISF protection of the high court to include the entirety of the campus.

According to a report in the Times of India, the court said, “In the event of expansion of CISF deployment to other courts in the premises, the barricade now put up between the high court and small causes and city civil court campus may also be removed, as the partition put up for security purposes may create a sense of unease among advocates for the reason that both the campuses (always) remained one.”

The court was listening to a PIL submitted by B Saravana Sathish Kumar who sought a direction from the court to 224 Bar Associations in Tamil Nadu. As per a report in The New Indian Express, the PIL requested the court to take appropriate action to prevent protests inside the court premises and to allow lawyers to continue representing their clients during boycotts announced by lawyers' associations.

In September 2015, following a massive protest by lawyers and civilians inside its court hall, the Madras High Court called for CISF protection for its campus. The then Chief Justice SK Kaul ordered the state government to provide CISF protection and said, “The judges must feel secure while administering justice and thus, proper security has to be arranged to prevent such incidents, which not only disrupt the functioning of the court but can result in security breaches when courts are concerned with sensitive matters, especially a court like the present High Court and its Bench.”

The Madras High Court campus in Parry’s Corner in Chennai received CISF protection in November that year. This, despite the state government moving the Supreme Court against it. The SC observed, “The Chief Justice (of the High Court) and judges are entitled to say that the police is ineffective. You cannot allow the institution to be held to ransom. We will not allow this to happen.”

In September last year, a bench comprising Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice M Sundar, extended the CISF cover for another year.

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