Chennai: Setting in motion the process of providing central security cover to the Madras HC here and its Madurai bench, as mandated by it in the backdrop of recent unruly incidents involving sections of lawyers, a 3-member CRPF team today held discussions with a top court official.
Deputy Inspector General S Elango, Deputy Commandant Jayasing Raja and Assistant commandant Bhajan Lal met HC Registrar (administration) V Devanathan in this regard as the Registrar General and Chief Justice were not available today.
Elango later told reporters they had held preliminary discussions with court officials who said they had identified spots within the campus where CCTV could be installed and access control measures could be introduced.
He said already about 900 state police personnel were involved in three shifts on security duty. The discussions were held after perusing a map of the High Court here, he said.
On October 14, the HC had ordered that the “inner circle” of its campuses here and in Madurai be brought under Central Industrial Security Force protection as a temporary measure.
It had said such an arrangement was required for at least six months. It also said a report may be filed by the state government and the Centre after discussions between them.
No state police official accompanied the CRPF officials today.
The HC had passed the order on suo motu PIL proceedings initiated after the court witnessed unruly scenes and obstruction by lawyers agitating for declaration of Tamil as official language of the court and over contempt of court proceedings against two Madurai-based Bar leaders last month.
It had said that bifurcation of security duty by handing over “inner circle” security and access control to CISF or a similar agency, while retaining peripheral security duty with state police, seems to be the higher judiciary’s answer to insulate itself from internal and external disturbances.
The state government had objected to handing over security to CISF or any agency other than state police.