Madras High Court Takes Suo Motu Cognizance Of Alleged Sexual Assault Of Student At Anna University

The Madras High Court on Friday (December 27) took suo motu cognizance of the alleged sexual assault of a 2nd-year Engineering Student inside the Anna University campus in Chennai.

A division bench bench of Justice SM Subramaniam and Justice V Lakshminarayanan took suo motu cognizance of the incident based on a letter by Advocate R Varalakshmi.

The bench however refrained from passing any orders noting that the formal orders from the Chief Justice were yet to be received. The court noted that since the procedure had to be followed while initiating the suo motu cognizance, the court had to await the Chief Justice's orders.

The Advocate General meanwhile assured the court that the State would file a status report regarding the investigation in the case. The court thus directed the matter to be placed before the Chief Justice for appropriate orders.

"We've made an attempt to get orders from the Chief Justice. But unfortunately, since he's not available, we're unable to obtain his written orders. There's a procedure to be followed. So we'll have to wait for the official orders," the court orally said in open court.

However, when Advocate Jayaprakash informed the court that a writ petition had also been filed in this regard, the bench remarked that it could hear the same and directed the registry to number the writs and place it before the bench by evening.

Reportedly on 23rd December (Monday), when the girl and her male friend were inside the University campus, the accused allegedly recorded a video of the couple and later attacked the friend. After the friend fled the area, the accused allegedly sexually assaulted the girl inside the university campus. On Tuesday, the All Women Police Station, Kotturpuram registered an FIR and the accused was subsequently arrested.

In her letter, Varalakshmi pointed out that the accused was a history-sheeter who already had a similar sexual assault case lodged against him which raised serious concerns regarding campus security and the effectiveness of the law-enforcement agencies in protecting students. Varalakshmi also raised concerns about the lack of safety measures inside the university campus including a lack of CCTV, security personnel infrastructural issues, etc.

Recently the National Commission for Women has also taken a suo motu cognizance calling for stricter punishments and action against those who leaked the details of the FIR in the public domain.