Southern States - Tamil Nadu   

HC to rescue of boy held under POTA

By A. Subramani

G. Prabhakaran, an SSLC student who was released by the POTA court on a Madras High Court order on Tuesday. — Photo: K. Pichumani

CHENNAI MARCH 18. The controversial arrest of an SSLC student under the Prevention of Terrorism Act in Dharmapuri district took a curious turn today, with the Madras High Court rapping the special court judge for having entertained a Q Branch petition to cancel the bail granted to the boy.

On the sanctity of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act, under which the boy should have been handled, Justice Sampath said: "The POTA court, in the present case, has exceeded its jurisdiction and trespassed into another territory. The mischief has to be undone".

The police, on November 24 last, arrested G. Prabhakaran (15) along with 25 others apparently because they could not locate his father, Gurusamy, a suspected naxalite. The boy's date of birth as per the school transfer certificate was May 11, 1987.

When Prabhakaran was produced before the Uthangkarai judicial magistrate, he ``mechanically remanded the boy to judicial custody". He was lodged along with the naxalite prisoners.

However, the Krishnagiri principal sessions judge, S. Ashok Kumar, granted bail, observing that the school certificate would prevail over the result of a radiological examination conducted to determine the boy's age. When the Government moved the POTA court at Poonamallee, near here, it first asked that the boy be produced for ``age determination" and asked his counsel why bail should not be cancelled.

In the present writ petition, K. Chandru, senior counsel, questioned the POTA court jurisdiction, saying Prabhakaran should have been granted bail even at the time of arrest or kept in an observation home and produced before the Juvenile Justice Board.

Mr. Justice Sampath said: "The rights of a child are an integral part of human rights, yet the protagonists of human rights hardly ever focus their attention on the exploitation and abuse of the rights of children".

Pointing out that "the JJ Act is the monarch of all that it surveys in its field," the judge said the legislation overwhelmingly contemplated total separation of juveniles from mainstream offenders. "Under no circumstances should they have anything to do with offenders". Mr. Justice Sampath said, "Both Acts (JJ Act and POTA) are special, but the JJ Act is more special".

Before quashing all proceedings before the POTA court, Mr. Justice Sampath said, "what the Krishnagiri judge has done is correct and can be justified". He also stipulated that Prabhakaran be proceeded against only under the JJ Act.

Later in the evening, A. Rahul, counsel for Prabhakaran in the POTA court, submitted a memo referring to the High Court order, and the special judge ordered the release of the boy from the observation home at Purasawalkam here.

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