CHENNAI: Holding that the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) cannot close the anti-Sterlite firing inquiry on merely the State paid the compensation to victim families, the Madras High Court directed the State to serve the status report of disciplinary actions initiated against the erring officials to the petitioner.
A division bench comprising Justice SS Sundar and Justice N Senthilkumar once again emphasized to the State that in the case of human rights violation the compensation should be recovered from the erring individual.
Additional Advocate General J Ravindran submitted that since the Parliament election is notified for the State, the relevant documents could not be produced before the court. Further, it was submitted to postpone the hearing after the election.
After the submission, the bench posted the matter to April 25 for further submission.
Human rights activist Henri Tiphagne filed a petition against an order passed by the NHRC, on October 25, 2018, closing the suo motu proceedings initiated by it about the Thoothukudi police firing, in which 13 anti-Sterlite protesters were shot and killed.
The activist sought to re-investigate the case on the basis of his complaint.
Henri Tiphagne also impleaded all the police personnel and public servants named in retired Justice Aruna Jagadeesan commission's report in compliance with the court's order.