In a terse message to the Tamil Nadu Police and the lawyers in Madras HC complex whose violent agitation recently forced the HC Chief Justice to order CISF cover, the Supreme Court on Wednesday fully backed the HC order and warned that if any attempt to undermine the institutional integrity and dignity of judges is made, the court will not hesitate to call even the Army.
An appeal filed by the Tamil Nadu Government had questioned the HC order of October 30 to deploy 650 Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel inside the 34-acre High Court complex by November 16 and even deposit Rs16.6 crore towards it within a week.
Senior advocate lN Rao who appeared for the State argued that such a decision not only brought down the morale of the State police, competent to provide security, but was a huge economic burden (Rs36 crore annually) on the State Exchequer.
Unruly scenes were witnessed in the High Court on September 14 over demand by lawyers to make Tamil official language of court proceedings. When matters came to a head with protestors disrupting court and manhandling judges, the Madras HC Chief Justice saw this as a security lapse and took the unusual step to order state to provide CISF cover.
Defending this action of HC, the apex bench of Justices TS Thakur and PC Pant said, “The Chief Justice and judges are entitled to say that the police was ineffective. You cannot allow the institution to be held to ransom. They felt totally insecure with the local police and have asked CISF to step in. If CISF also fails, even the Army, BSF, paramilitary may be called.”
Asking the State to view the matter from the angle of maintaining the “dignity” and “institutional integrity” of HC, the SC made searching queries of police inaction when lawyers with their families barged into courtroom and created unruly scenes by sitting in protest with placards that paralyzed court proceedings. “When the September 14 incident was happening where was the State Advocate General, the Bar Associations. They were mute spectators. The institution’s integrity and dignity cannot be compromised. Nobody, including the lawyers, will be allowed to hold the institution to ransom,” the Bench said.
The State was allowed to withdraw its appeal as the bench told Rao that it was for the State police to convince the HC of providing adequate security.