chennai high court Mayhem in Madras High Court; lawyers lathi-charged, judges run

chennai high court It was mayhem in the over 150-year-old venerable Madras High Court this evening as Police and Lawyers fought pitched battles for over two hours, leaving at least 20 persons including a Judge badly injured. It left behind a ‘Black Thursday’ as the protests over the Sri Lankan Tamils issue took an ominous turn.

The Lawyers, after nearly a month-long protest and boycott of Courts returned to work today. But the proverbial “one-drop-of-poison-syndrome” worsened the uneasy calm in the sprawling campus, letting loose a chain of violence including setting afire a Police station inside the campus and even forcing the Judges to scamper for safety.

The ‘Hindustan Times’ correspondent visiting the Court campus found stones and broken glass pieces strewn around in the rear side, amidst scores of cars and two-wheelers of advocates mercilessly smashed to varying degrees of disfigurement.

Police lathi-charged the agitated lawyers and at one stage burst tear-gas shells, as the situation seemed to be getting out of control. A section of the cops were seen brutally chasing away many lawyers amid both exchanging filthy words in Tamil.

Today’s developments was a sequel to the February 17 assault on the Janata Party President, Dr. Subramanian Swamy, by a group of lawyers sympathetic of the Sri Lankan Tamils cause right inside a Court room when he had come to implead himself in a case challenging the State Government’s recent takeover of the ancient ‘Nataraja’ Temple in Chidambaram, about 180 km, South of Chennai. The case came up today, but passed off uneventfully this morning when Dr. Swamy again appeared in Court.

Some eye-witnesses said the trigger point for today’s unprecedented violence came after a group of lawyers led by one Mr. S. Rajnikanth, went to the ‘B-4 Police Station’ inside the Court campus to lodge a counter-complaint against Dr. Swamy, whom they alleged had abused their (lawyers) lower caste status.

According to Mr. Rajnikanth’s complaint, Dr. Swamy had been heard using objectionable language against the agitating lawyers over the Sri Lankan Tamils issue when he walked along the verandah towards the Court Hall on Feb 17. The Janata Party leader had even charged a section of the lawyers with “instigating the protests here after having taken money from the Tamil Tigers (LTTE).”

Even as these angry lawyers came out after filing their complaint- some of them were named as accused in the Feb 17 assault case on Dr. Swamy-, eye-witnesses said they were stopped by a posse of Policemen who wanted to arrest them in connection with that incident. A wordy duel then ensued between the lawyers and the Police and at that point, “something happened and all hell broke loose,” a Court source said.

With more lathi-wielding Police reinforcements arriving at the scene and cracking down on the lawyers, several persons including a couple of news photographers suffered bleeding injuries. “Suddenly, Police with lathis’ charged against one and all, even as from the other side several advocates began pelting stones,” a social worker who did not want to be named and who was close to the action-spot then, told HT.

A group of Judges including the Acting Chief Justice, Mr. Justice S.J. Mukhopadhyaya came out in concern and sought to pacify the clashing crowd. But when the Police began charging, chasing away whomever they noticed, the Judges were seen running back into their Chambers for safety. One Judge, Mr. Arumuga Perumal Adityan, who was caught in the melee, was injured and admitted to hospital.

“The B-4 Police station (inside) has been virtually gutted and files destroyed,” cried an eyewitness. “We all came back to duty today peacefully; all this would not have happened if only Dr. Swamy had not come in,” said a lawyer on condition of anonymity.

Even Court staff was not spared as steel-helmeted police went around ensuring that nobody stayed behind in any room, kicked and thumped the room-doors in the adjacent lawyers’ chambers. As one of the last staff batches was escorted out by the Police by 6 pm, contingents of the ‘Special Action Group (SAG), ‘Rapid Action Force (RAF)’ and Tamil Nadu commando Police had taken charge, as though there was a terror threat to the High Court complex. A section of the young lawyers are “equally to blame for this tragedy,” said a court official as darkness cloaked the Court’s majestic towers.

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