Madras High Court Digest 2023: Human Rights

Madras High Court Bats For Better Prison Culture, Orders Preparation Of Prisoners' Rights Handbook Case Title: People's Watch v. The Home Secretary, Home Department (Prison) and another Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (Mad) 7 Noticing shortcomings in the manner in which prison administration is carried out at present, the Madras High Court has issued a slew of directions to the State and the Prison Department for creating a better prison environment and prison culture. The Madurai bench of Justice R Mahadevan and Justice Sathya Narayana Prasad directed the respondent authorities to also prepare a “Prisoners' Rights Handbook” highlighting the rights of the prisoners and their grievance mechanisms. A copy of this Handbook is to be given to each prisoner upon their admission. No Dance Form Should Be Identified Using A Caste/Tribal Community's Name To Insult Such Community Members: Madras High Court Case Title: Po.Mu.Iraniyan @ Muthu Murugan v. The Union of India and others Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (Mad) 12 While disposing of a petition seeking to take action against cultural programmes denigrating the Kuravar community, the Madras High Court directed the state to ensure that no dance performances are identified with a community, so as to denigrate the members of the community. ..ensure that no dance performance is identified using a caste/ tribal community's name so as to insult or degrade the persons belonging to such community. The bench of Justice R Mahadevan and Justice Sathya Narayana Prasad of the Madurai bench also directed the State and police authorities not to grant permissions to such cultural programmes depicting the Kuravar community in an obscene manner. The court also directed the authorities to open a separate portal for the general public where any grievance with respect to obscene representation of the community could be raised and the related videos could be uploaded. The Cyber crime department could then look into the grievance and take appropriate action whenever necessary. Madras High Court Directs State To Compensate Man Detained For 8 Months Despite Acquittal Case Title: Rathinam v State Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (Mad) 16 The Madras High Court recently directed the State to award interim compensation to a man who was illegally detained in prison for more than 8 months even after the court had acquitted him of his murder charges. Justice Sunder Mohan noted that since the man was not aware of his rights, he had not preferred an appeal and as such was not aware of his acquittal. Thus, it was necessary for the court to come to the aid of such persons. 'State's Duty To Ensure Proper Disposal of Hazardous Waste': Madras High Court Directs Govt To Pay ₹10 Lakh Each To Children Injured In Explosion Case Title: Sankareswari and another v. The District Collector and others Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (Mad) 22 The Madras High Court recently came to the rescue of two children who had suffered severe burn injuries in 2018 on account of an explosion near a water body in Sivakasi. The explosion was a result of improper dumping of wastes from the firecracker industries nearby. The children, students of class X, were playing near the waterbody at the time of explosion. Holding the State liable, Justice GR Swaminathan of the Madurai bench directed it to pay a sum of Rs.10 lakh each to the victims. Madras High Court Allows Brother To Be Appointed As Legal Guardian Of Woman With Mental Disability Case Title: G. Babu v. The District Collector and Ors. Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (Mad) 30 The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court on Tuesday while permitting the brother of a schizophrenic patient to be appointed as her legal guardian, observed that “person suffering from multiple disability” in Section 2 (j) of the National Trust for Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities Act, 1999 must be understood to mean “a person with benchmark disability” as defined in Section 2(r) of the 2016 Act. The Court observed that this would enable the Local Level Committee constituted under Central 44 of 1999 to deal with cases of appointment of guardian for persons suffering from any kind of disability. Justice G. R. Swaminathan observed that the Local Level Committee constituted under Central 44 of 1999 should not confine themselves to cases of congenital conditions such as autism, cerebral palsy and mental retardation alone and that they should also deal with other disabilities as it would enable easier and quicker access to justice. "Total Ban For Conduct Of Religious Meetings Not Possible": Madras High Court Allows Hindu Outfit's Conference Case Title: RS Deva alias Kamadevan v. The Home Secretary and others Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (Mad) 32 The Madras High Court has recently allowed the Indu Makkal Katchi-Tamizhagam to conduct their...

Madras High Court Digest 2023: Human Rights

Upasana Sajeev

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