Madras High Court Seeks State's Response To Plea For Dedicated Anti-Terrorism Squad

The Madras High Court on Monday directed the state government to file its response to a plea seeking to set up a dedicated Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) in the state. The bench of Acting Chief Justice T Raja and Justice D Krishnakumar adjourned the case by four weeks for the state's counter.

The petitioner, B Jagannath, submitted that for maintaining law and order it is necessary to have foolproof technological and counter-terrorism support. Thus, it is necessary to set up an ATS. He contended that Tamilnadu is a very vulnerable geo-political geographic area and that it is the duty of the state to protect its citizens against any threats of LTTE, Radical Islamic Terrorist acts.

Even though Tamil Nadu has a Maritime sea police wing, the petitioner contended that the same is not working efficiently as it does not even have 50 Patrol Boats. These boats do not even have proper Zero Emergent Critical Strike Maritime capabilities, he claimed.

When the case came up for hearing on Monday, the petitioner cited recent newspaper reports which claimed that there is a rise in Islamic fundamentalism and that there exists a threat of radical Jihadi elements from Pakistan and Afghanistan. Justice T Raja however expressed his disagreement.

The bench noted that the State Border Police and the National Coast Guard were already doing an efficient job of implementing the requisite security measures. It thus directed the petitioner to cite specific instances which necessitated setting up of the ATS. 

To this, the petitioner explained that ATS is necessary as a preventive task force and cited examples of how the Mumbai police had set up a dedicated ATS following the 2008 attacks. States such as Kerala and Karnataka had also set up ATS even though they did not witness any terrorist activity, he added. 

Advocate General R Shunmughasundaram opposed the petition by submitting that the state already had dedicated squads to deal with security issues. Further, since the petition dealt with security issues, the relief should have been sought from the Union government and not the state government. Thus, he sought dismissal of the petition.

Case Title: B Jagannath v The Chief Secretary and others

Case No: WP No. 26853 of 2022