M A I N   N E W S

HC notices to Centre, TN
IPS officers’ transfers

Chennai, August 3
The Madras High Court today ordered issuance of notices, returnable by four weeks, to the Union and Tamil Nadu Government, on a petition seeking a direction not to take any action, including transfer, against the police officials involved in the alleged manhandling of former Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi during his arrest in the Rs 12 crore flyover scam case.

A Division Bench, comprising Chief Justice N.K. Jain and Mr Justice P. Thangavel, ordered notices to the Union Home Secretary and the state Chief Secretary on a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by an advocate K.R. Vijayakumar.

The petitioner prayed to restrain the two governments from taking any action, either directly or indirectly, such as disciplinary proceedings, suspension, transfer, deputation, cadre change and compulsory waiting, detrimental to the interest of the police officials without considering the report of the Justice Raman Commission of inquiry and without following established procedure of law.

He also sought an interim direction to restrain the governments from disturbing any of the 19 police officials, including Commissioner of Police K. Muthukarruppan, DIG Mohammad Ali, Joint Commissioner (Central) S. George, Deputy Commissioner Christopher Nelson and Assistant Commissioner (Mylapore) A. Murugesan, from their present postings and cadre position under any circumstances whatsoever, pending disposal of this petition.

Meanwhile, The Tamil Nadu Government in its reply to the Centre’s request seeking the services of three state police officers, said it (Centre) was flouting its own “norms and guidelines on deputation of all India services which are communicated to the states from time to time”, official sources said.

The government said the officers — city Police Commissioner K. Muthukaruppan, Joint Police Commissioner S. George and Deputy Commissioner of Police Christopher Nelson — were not eligible for “inter-state deputation” as they were not put on the annual “offer list”, they said. UNI