200 CCTV surveillance installed on Madras High Court campus

CISF, Senior commandant, K V K Sriram told reporters that the CCTV cameras are due to be commissioned on Tuesday with Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul inaugurating it in the presence of CISF, Director General, O P Singh. He also noted that the cameras installed within the court premises as well as out of it will be monitored at the high-tech control room set up at the office of the senior commandant. 

Along with this upgradation in the security set up, as many as six scanning centres are being set up covering all entry points to the High Court and the process is scheduled to be completed by March 2017. The scanners would be like the ones installed at airports, he added. About crowd control, he said as many as 10 counters have been created to ensure that litigants are not delayed in a queue and can be present in court when the hearing commences. 

Similarly, since police personnel had similar such complaints of delay in presenting themselves at the court, the process of issuing passes is being done at the police control room itself to avoid delay, he added. 

Incidentally, the process of installing the CCTV cameras had come about while the High Court had witnessed widespread agitation over introduction of new conduct rules and punishments in section 34 of the Advocates Act, which included aspects like an advocate who browbeats and/ or abuses a judge or judicial officer; an advocate who actively participates in a procession inside the court campus and/or is involved in gherao inside the court hall or holds placard inside the court hall and an advocate who appears in the court under the influence of liquor. 

During the protest, when a PIL moved by advocate Kasi Ramalingam seeking to install CCTV cameras on court campus came up, he sought the first bench to keep the rules in abeyance till the installation of CCTV cameras on court campus is completed as that would take care of most of the aspects like browbeating of judges by the advocates and so. Now, while the rules have been kept in abeyance, the process of installing CCTV cameras in the district courts have also commenced.

: Big blow for Singam-III producer as the Madras High Court refused to entertain a plea moved by him seeking to restrain registered Internet Service Providers in India from permitting illegal downloads of the movies. Dismissing the plea as withdrawn, Justice T Raja pointed out that it is a matter pertaining to a civil suit and hence a writ petition cannot be entertained in this regard. Since the petitioner’s counsel agreed to withdraw the plea, the judge on granting liberty to the petitioner to agitate the matter before an appropriate forum dismissed the plea as withdrawn. The film producer K E Gnanavelraja, had prayed for a direction to various agencies of the State and central governments to restrain the Internet Service Providers Association of India (ISPAI) and its 135 members, including Bharti Airtel, from indulging in online piracy and infringement of copy-right pertaining to his film SI-III, throughout the country and abroad.

The Madras High Court dismissed a plea seeking to stall the retail sale of tobacco in any form in shops especially near schools after holding that a law in this regard is already in force. The first bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice M Sundar said, “As the law against sale and use of tobacco products, including cigarettes in public places, more particularly near educational institutions, is already in force, there is no need for any more direction.” The petitioner Natarajan of Pallikaranai, appearing party-in-person, prayed, among other things, a direction to close the retail sale of tobacco in any form in shops and other places, create smoking areas for smokers, direct the authorities to punish the violators strictly and to hold health seminars on the issue.