Govt to tread cautiously on HC issue

CHENNAI: Chief minister M Karunanidhi will hold detailed discussion with legal experts and senior bureaucrats before taking any decision against the four IPS officers indicted by the Madras High Court on Thursday, according to official sources.
The state government has always been respecting the judiciary by obeying the judicial orders or directives, they added.
Asked about the government's response to the judgment, law minister Durai Murugan on Friday said that "as a matter of policy, we normally do not make any comment on judicial orders." However, senior officials said that the government will take time to shape up its course of action in the issue after carefully going through the judgement, which runs into more than 500 pages.
Top brass in the government feels that the HC had not passed any strictures against the government for its handling of the sensitive issue. Instead, it had acknowledged that the CM, from his hospital bed, wrote a letter to the acting chief justice expressing his willingness to drive down in an ambulance to meet him, to restore normality.
There is no second opinion about initiating departmental and disciplinary action against the police officials as directed by the HC, the sources said, adding that it was neither a directive nor a mandatory in nature.
"Suspension of senior police officers is a sensitive step, as it involves the morale of police. The government has to tread the issue carefully. The investigation by the CBI is going on and a the N Sundaradeven committee appointed by the state government is yet to submit its findings. In such a scenario, the CM will not act in haste," a senior official said.
As the HC has left the question of placing the officials under suspension to the discretion of the government, the government will not rush through. Karunanidhi is expected to hold discussion with the chief secretary KS Sripathi on Saturday and seek opinion from legal experts on the subject, sources said. The disciplinary action, as directed by the court, need not necessarily end up in suspension of the officers, a senior bureaucrat explained.
As the aggrieved officers are expected to move the Supreme Court, the government will not come in their way and also wait for its outcome, sources said.