Madras HC assures basic facilities at spl court, to look into judge ‘mistreating’ advocates

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court assured that it would contact the special judge at the sessions court for exclusive trial for bomb blast cases in Poonamallee regarding his alleged ill-treatment of advocates. It also instructed the registrar of the city civil court to make available basic facilities at the Poonamallee sessions court, confirming that lawyers and advocates could represent their cases through video-conferencing before the special court.

The assurance comes after bar association members raised issues like alleged ill-treatment by the special judge and lack of basic facilities at the special court like drinking water, restrooms and video-conferencing.

A division bench of Justices SM Subramaniam and M Jothiraman was hearing a petition moved by 'Police' Fakrudeen, a notorious Muslim fundamentalist and a remand prisoner in Puzhal, seeking to challenge his solitary confinement and sought to appoint senior counsel B Mohan to represent him as trials against him were incomplete even after 11 years.

The senior counsel appeared before the bench virtually on Wednesday and submitted his consent to represent Fakrudeen. He also highlighted the alleged non-conducive situation prevailing in the special court. He alleged that there were no proper facilities like restrooms and drinking water or even provisions to photocopy case documents.

He also submitted that the special judge was reportedly ill-treating the advocates and not entertaining junior advocates who came to represent their seniors at court. He alleged that the judge did not allow them to drink water in the court hall.

Subsequently, a group of advocates, including young bar association members, appeared before the Madras High Court bench and submitted several allegations against the special judge.

On behalf of the bar associations, advocate Vijayakumar sought to rectify the alleged prevailing situation in the special court and also sought to shift the court from Poonamallee to the proximity of the High Court, stating that the location was causing inconvenience for advocates to represent their cases. However, the bench refused to issue directions to shift the special court. Vijayakumar also submitted that a representation seeking action against the special judge was sent to the Chief Justice.

After the submission, the bench observed that they would personally contact the special judge and requested the advocates to cooperate to conduct the cases in the special court.

Additionally, the bench instructed the registrar of the city civil court to ensure the availability of basic facilities in the special court. After enquiring with the registrar of IT and Statistics, the bench made it clear that the advocates could appear through video-conferencing (VC) before the special court to represent their cases, as the bar members had alleged there were no VC facilities at the special court.

The bench also directed the senior advocate B Mohan to conduct the case booked against Fakrudeen and complete the trial expeditiously.

Additional public prosecutor R Muniyapparaj submitted that newspapers and books were being provided to Fakrudeen as he was pursuing a BA in political science. In a hearing last week, the court mandated that the prisoner be provided with educational material after he said he was being denied access.