Madras High Court Building. File.
| Photo Credit: PICHUMANI K
While acknowledging the strenuous nature of job performed by police personnel, the Madras High Court on Thursday (November 27, 2025) said, the personnel in uniform, expected to maintain peace and provide security as well as confidence to all citizens, should not act as “human machines” and end up using excessive force.
Justice M. Nirmal Kumar made the observation while quashing criminal cases registered by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against a few police constables and many lawyers pursuant to an unprecedent violent clash between them inside the Madras High Court campus on February 19, 2009.
The judge recalled the incident had occurred when a section of lawyers here were vociferously supporting the cause of Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka. Even before that, a resentment was brewing between the lawyers and police due to strong security deployed on the High Court campus pursuant to the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
On February 17, 2009, a group of lawyers hurled eggs on former Union Minister Subramanian Swamy, a staunch opponent of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), when he was arguing a case, related to Chidambaram Thillai Natarajar Temple, in person before a Division Bench headed by Justice P.K. Misra.
The incident led to registration of a First Information Report (FIR) against 14 named advocates and six others. The police arrested one of the advocates from his residence and had begun a hunt for others. On February 19, 2009, Mr. Swamy was slated to visit the High Court once again and hence the security was intensified.
The heightened security measures ensured he visited the court and left the campus without any untoward incident. However, after he left, a huge group of advocates visited the High Court police station and offered to surrender the lawyers who had been named in the FIR booked for the February 17 incident.
When the police attempted to take the advocates concerned into custody, the lawyers demanded the arrest of Mr. Swamy as a pre-condition for the surrender. The police immediately booked a FIR against Mr. Swamy too under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act of 1989.
However, the lawyers continued to press upon his arrest and suddenly, the situation went out of control when some of them hurled footwear and stones on the police personnel besides raising abusive slogans in filthy language. The police, initially, used mild force to chase away the crowd.
The tension escalated when the High Court police station was set on fire and the fire and rescue services personnel were prevented from dousing the fire. It was after all this, the police opened tear gas shells and opened lathi charge leading to the situation becoming combative and explosive.
Lawyers, court staff, litigants, journalists and even a sitting judge of the High Court suffered blood injuries forcing a Full Bench (comprising three judges) headed by the then Acting Chief Justice S.K. Mukhopadhaya to hold a special sitting at 6:40 p.m. on the day of the incident for ordering a CBI probe.
Observing that nearly 15 years had lapsed since the incident occurred and both the police as well as the lawyers had buried their hatchet over the years, Justice Kumar said, no useful purpose would be served in going ahead with the trial in the cases booked by the CBI against the lawyers as well as police constables.
“Kindling the acrimonious incident again, will do no good for both. Added to it, considering the totality of the cases based on the statements of witnesses and materials collected, it is suffice to say that it leads to a path of nowhere. In the interest of justice, this court is inclined to quash the proceedings,” the judge concluded.
Published – November 27, 2025 08:59 pm IST
