Tenure of panel probing City civil court violence extended

The tenure of the Justice R G Vaidyanathan Commission, one of the three panels looking into the violence on the City Civil Court premises that rocked the City on March 2 last year, has been extended by six months.

Set up in April this year, the commission was entrusted with the task of probing the “...extensive violence, burning of private and public transport vehicles, physical violence between media personnel and advocates followed by police caning, and bursting of teargas shells on the court complex.”

While the term of the commission expired on June 9, the government extended it till December 9. Meanwhile, the Special Investigation Team has replaced the existing member of the panel, Kerala ADGP Maheshkumar Singla by bringing in Kerala ADGP (intelligence) T P Senkumar. Singla has been promoted and moved out of his current posting as ADGP.

Later on October 19, 2012, the Supreme Court laid down the guidelines for setting up the SIT and recommended the names of ADGP, Tamil Nadu; ADGP Kerala; an officer in the rank of DIG from Karnataka cadre who is deputed to the CBI, and the Station House
Officer of Ulsoor Gate police station. Since then, the State government has replaced two officers from the SIT on the ground of promotion.

The first replacement was made on November 13, 2012, by transferring DIG Soumendu Mukherjee and installing DIG Seemant Kumar Singh. And the second, as recently as May 7, by replacing Singla with Senkumar. Sources in the Home Department said the three commissions have been given a varied set of ‘terms and conditions’ for looking into the clash between the police, lawyers and the media.

It is said that earlier this month, the judiciary had approved the extension of the Justice Vaidyanathan Commission and asked him to submit the report at the earliest.