Heinous crime committed by police personnel amounts to violation of fundamental rights guaranteed under Art.21.

The Honourable Chief Justice:

The appellant, Thekkamalai, who is a cobbler, and his wife Lakshmi, an agricultural worker, are the residents of Gandhi Nagar in Vaiyampatty in Manapparai Taluk in Trichy District and they belong to Scheduled Caste. In July, 1989, Thekkamalai was taken to the police station for an enquiry in connection with some missing amount from an accident place. His wife Lakshmi was also brought to the police station to see her husband in the lock-up. It is alleged that in the police station she was threatened by the police personnel to reveal the theft of money and she pleaded innocence. It is further alleged that she was taken to a certain place by the Sub Inspector of Police, who, after removing her gold and brass ornaments, forcibly raped her. As the matter was taken up to the Deputy Superintendent of Police, Manapparai, an F.I.R. came to be registered in Cr.No.153 of 1989 for the offence under Secs.376 and 379 of I.P.C. and a criminal case in S.C. No.90 of 1992 against the said Sub Inspector of Police before the I Assistant Sessions Court, Trichy.

2. Invoking Art.226 of the Constitution, a writ petition was filed on behalf of Thekkamalai and his wife Lakshmi to direct the first respondent to pay a fair and reasonable amount as compensation to Lakshmi and Thekkamalai, to provide adequate and suitable rehabilitative measures to them, to appoint a Special Public Prosecutor with the consent of the Chairman of the Tamil Nadu Legal Aid Board for conducting the trial in S.C. No.90 of 1992 on the file of the I Assistant Sessions Judge, Trichy and to provide adequate personal protection to Thekkamalai and Lakshmi and their close relatives.

3. Learned single Judge, on materials produced before him, held that there is a prima facie case of the victim Lakshmi having been criminally assaulted at the police station and was a victim of rape committed by the Police Sub Inspector. The learned single Judge, therefore, allowed the writ petition and directed the first respondent to pay interim compensation Rs.75,000/- to Thekkamalai and his wife Lakshmi, subject to the right of the State to realise the said amount from the delinquent police personnel concerned, who abused their position as the servants of the State Government, and irrespective of the result of their prosecution before the criminal court. Learned single Judge further directed the first respondent to take all necessary steps to provide the victims adequate and suitable rehabilitative measures. Certain further directions were issued, but those are not material for the purpose of this appeal.

4. Thekkamalai has filed the present appeal Sfor the enhancement of the compensation on the ground that he and his wife Lakshmi are entitled to just and reasonable compensation and the amount awarded by the learned single Judge by way of interim compensation is meagre and inadequate.

5. Learned counsel, Mr. Rathinam, appearing for the appellant urged that the approach adopted by the learned single Judge was unwarranted since this is a clear case of vicarious liability of the State for the criminal/tortuous acts of illegal arrest, unlawful detention and rape committed by the Sub Inspector of Police on the basis of a false F.I.R. According to Mr. Rathinam the learned single Judge has failed to fix the just and reasonable compensation since the nature of sufferings the victims had undergone were many and distinct. Learned counsel urged that with regard to the rehabilitative measures to be adopted by the first respondent, the learned single Judge ought to have issued specific directions such as providing employment to the victims on the lines indicated in the Scheduled Caste and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Rules, 1995.

6. Learned counsel invited our attention to an unreported decision of this Court, dated 21-6-2002, delivered by M. Karpagavinayagam, J., in Criminal Appeal Nos.764 and 765 of 1993 (Govindan @ Govindarajan and another v. State). That wa