Madras High Court quashes case, questions police-only witnesses

MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court quashed a criminal case against members of the Tamil Nationalist Marxist (TNM) party over their protest seeking official language status for Tamil, noting that all witnesses listed in the charge sheet were police personnel.

The prosecution alleged that the petitioners and other TNM members unlawfully assembled on February 11, 2024, and put up a flex banner demanding that Tamil be made an official language of the High Court. They were also accused of threatening police officials and preventing them from performing their duties, and of threatening to set fire to vehicles if they were not allowed to protest.

Justice R Vijayakumar observed that the charge sheet showed the accused had unlawfully assembled for the protest, but that all the witnesses cited for the other allegations were police officials. “In such circumstances, continuation of criminal proceedings as against the petitioner herein would only be an abuse of process of law,” the court observed.

Accordingly, the court quashed the charge sheet pending on the file of the Judicial Magistrate, Theni, not only against the petitioner but also against the other accused.