PIL to implement Inquiry Commission recommendations filed

Chennai, Nov 25 (UNI) A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition to implement the recommendations of the Justice K S Bhakthavatsalam Commission of Inquiry, which probed the December 2001 attack on law college hostel students, has been filed in Madras High Court.

Immediately after the December 7, 2001 violent clash between law college hostel student and public and subsequent police excesses inside the Millers Road hostel at Purasavakkam, the then AIADMK government constituted the Inquiry Commission.

On February 26, 2004, an order was issued by the government, formally accepting the commission's findings and recommendations.

The panel had called upon the authorities to enforce strict discipline among hostel students, and made a categorical suggestion that though the standard of student discipline was falling it cannot be a reason to shift the hostel from Miller's road.

The panel urged the government to construct a residential premises for the hostel warden inside the campus in order to ensure that the warden remained there to supervise students round the clock.

It also said as the warden was not visiting the hostel premises daily, day to day affairs of the hostel had been left to a deputy warden.

Seeking an immediate implementation of these recommendations, the petitioner, C Vijayakumar, President of Lawyers' Centre for Human Rights, said though more than four years after the recommendations were accepted by the government, they were yet to be implemented.

The PIL is likely to come up for hearing before the first bench of the High Court tomorrow.

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