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The Hindu
15 hours ago
- Politics
- The Hindu
Madras High Court directs Puzhal Central Prison Superintendent to inform respective consulates about detention of foreigners
The Madras High Court has directed the Superintendent of the Central Prison at Puzhal near Chennai to report forthwith the detention of foreigners not only to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) but also to the consulates of their respective countries. A Division Bench of Justices M.S. Ramesh and V. Lakshminarayanan pointed out that Rule 531 of the Tamil Nadu Prison Rules, 2024, requires Superintendents of all prisons to intimate the consulates concerned about the detention of foreigners, without any delay. However, they found that at least in three cases involving the detention of Sri Lankan nationals, the Superintendent of Puzhal Central Prison had neither informed the MEA nor the Sri Lankan Deputy High Commission in Chennai of their detention. It was only after the court took note of the issue, the Superintendent chose to inform the MEA, but it still failed to inform the Deputy High Comission. Since there was a mandatory requirement to do so, the judge ordered that the Superintendent must striclty adhere to Rule 531. The judges recorded the submission of Additional Public Prosecutor E. Raj Thilak that the Superintendent shall immediately inform the respective consulates about the detention of not only the three writ petitioners C. Nalin Sathuranga, C. Sujanthan, and B. Pushparaj, but also other foreigners. Rule 531 also requires the Superintendent to permit the consulate officials to visit the prisoners, for the purpose of conversing with them and arranging for their legal representation, after obtaining government permission. Therefore, it was absolutely necessary to intimate them about the detention, the judges said. The interim order was passed on writ petitions filed by the three individuals seeking a direction to the Deputy Inspector General of Prisons, as well as the Superintendent of the Puzhal Central Prison, to arrange for consular visits and permit embassy grievance redressal mechanism. However, on finding that the preliminary requirement of intimating the consulates about the detentions had not been complied with so far, the judges directed the Superintendent to adhere to it forthwith, and report to the court on July 25, 2025.
The Hindu
11-06-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
Revenue officials can issue ‘no caste, no community' certificates: Madras High Court
The Madras High Court has called upon the Tamil Nadu government to issue a Government Order (G.O.) empowering the revenue officials to issue 'no caste, no community' certificates to individuals who prefer not to be identified with any religion or caste. A Division Bench of Justices M.S. Ramesh and N. Senthilkumar said, the very intention of a person to shun religious and caste based identity was a 'laudable' move which, in the long run, would promote prohibition of caste based discrimination. The orders were passed while reversing an order passed by a single judge who had, in February 2024, refused to direct the Tirupattur Tahsildar to issue 'no caste, no community' certificate to an applicant since the revenue officials had not been empowered to issue such a certificate. The single judge had appreciated the desire of the applicant H. Vinoth to obtain a certificate from a revenue official certifying that he does not belong to any religion or caste, but refused to issue any such direction to the Tahsildar since the latter lacked the authority to issue the certificate. Allowing a writ appeal filed by Mr. Vinoth against the single judge's order, the Division Bench said, the single judge appeared to have been 'misguided' by the stand of an Additional Government Pleader that revenue officials were not empowered to issue 'no caste, no community' certificates. The Division Bench said, the government counsel's stand was paradoxical since at least three copies of 'no caste, no community' certificates issued by the Tirupattur Tahsildar on February 5, 2019, Coimbatore Tahsildar on May 27, 2022, and Ambattur Tahsildar on August 18, 2022, had been produced before the court. 'Even otherwise, when there is a constitutional mandate under Article 25 (freedom of conscience and free profession, practice and propagation of religion) of the Constitution, the revenue authorities cannot wriggle out of this constitutional obligation by quoting absence of any rule or G.O. to that effect,' the Bench said. It directed the Tirupattur Collector and Tahsildar to issue the certificate to the appellant within a month. Authoring the verdict, Justice Ramesh wrote: 'In India, religion and caste are two deeply rooted social identifiers that influence many aspects of life including personal identity, politics and social interactions.' He went on to state: 'While the Constitution prohibits caste based discrimination, caste and religion still play a significant role in social life, politics, education and employment through reservation policies... The desire of the appellant to shun caste and community is laudable and would be an eye opener for like minded citizens.'
