File photo of Madras High Court.
The Supreme Court today refused to interfere with the Madras High Court order for deployment of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) by replacing state police security at its Chennai premises, which has recently witnessed unruly scenes caused by lawyers paralysing normal work.
It said nobody, including the lawyers, can be allowed to hold to ransom the institution which has to remain "effective" by maintaining its "integrity" and "dignity."
The top court made it clear it was not going to examine the issue at the instance of the state government which has filed an appeal against the High Court order of October 30.
"The Chief Justice (of the High Court) and judges are entitled to say that the police is ineffective. You cannot allow the institution to be held to ransom. We will not allow this to happen," a bench comprising Justices TS Thakur and PC Panth said.
"They (judges) felt they are totally insecure with the local police. They have asked CISF to step in. If CISF also fails then other forces may be asked to be called," it said.
The bench did not agree with the arguments of Tamil Nadu Government counsel and senior advocate L Nageshwar Rao that paying an hefty amount of Rs 36 crore per year to the Centre for deploying CISF would be a problem and, further, deputing central force would affect the morale of the state police.
He said there would also be a language issue with the CISF at the High Court campus which is visited daily by 15,000 lawyers.
Brushing aside the arguments, the bench recalled the incident of September 14 and said "people don't allow the institution to work. They (lawyers) squat with their children and female members of the family in the courtroom. What is all this happening?"
The bench told the counsel that the Tamil Nadu Government could go to the High Court and advance all arguments about the language problem and the morale of the state police.
"Go back to the High Court and point out the difficulties," the bench said and added "we don't want to handle the security issue of the High Court. High Court is competent to handle it itself. If High Court feels that there is inadequate security it can certainly ask for CISF cover."