Madras High Court Directs Setting Up Of District Level Monitoring Committees To Ensure Orderly System Is Abolished

The bench of Justice SM Subramaniam and Justice C Kumarappan directed the committee to be formulated within 2 weeks.

The committee shall be headed by the respective District Collectors and will have one revenue officer not below the rank of District Revenue Officer. It will further have two police officials not below the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police/Assistant Commissioner of Police, who are to be directly nominated by the District Collector.

The court had previously refused to accept a report submitted by the Director General of Police informing the court that the orderly system was completely abolished in the state. The court took note of recent news reports, which suggested that the uniformed personnel continued to be made to work as orderlies.

The court had thus suo moto impleaded the Chief Secretary and the Home Secretary and sought an explanation from them. The court had also asked the Advocate General to assist the court.

When the matter was taken up today, the AG submitted a copy of the government letter dated 02.01.2026 issued by the Additional Secretary to the Home Department, wherein instructions had been issued to the DGP/Head of Police Force to ensure that government policy dispensing with the orderly system is implemented in letter and spirit in compliance with the orders of the court.

The AG also suggested that district-level committees could be formed to monitor that the system is completely abolished.

The court agreed with the suggestion and noted that it might be a problem for the DGP and other higher officials to implement the order to abolish orderly system since many of the retired DGPs and higher officials were the ones using the armed personnel for their household work. The court thus directed that the committee can be headed by the District Collector.

It may be noted that in August 2022, Justice Subramaniam had ordered a complete abolition of the orderly system in the State. The court had directed the authorities to remove the orderlies appointed in the residence of retired officials and added that if any complaint was received, it would take disciplinary action.

The court had also directed the Home Ministry to take strict action against higher officials whenever an incident of practising the orderly system was reported. It also directed that apart from taking departmental action, the salary payable to officials engaged as an orderly must be recovered from the errant higher official. However, even in 2024, while dealing with another case, the court had remarked that despite several court orders, the practice continued to exist.

In the present case, the court was taking up a petition filed by Advocate A Radhakrishnan, seeking police protection based on his representation. One of the reasons cited for failure to provide police protection was the lack of police personnel.

The court then questioned whether its earlier order on abolishing the orderly system had been complied with. Though the DGP submitted that the system had been abolished in the state, the court refused to accept this and called for an explanation.

Case Title: A Radhakrishnan v The Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs and Others

Citation: 2026 LiveLaw (Mad) 16

Case No: WP Crl. No. 472 of 2025