The state has a responsibility under Article 21 to protect citizens from mob violence and provide compensation for injuries sustained during protests, reflecting its duty to maintain law and order.

ORDER

This Writ Petition has been filed seeking for issuance of a Writ of Mandamus, to direct the respondents to pay a sum of Rs.50,00,000/- (Rupees Fifty Lakhs Only) towards compensation to the petitioner's son for having lost of his left eye vision due to the physical violence done to him.

2.The case of the petitioner is that there was an agitation and protest that took place at the Marina Beach in Chennai from 17.01.2017 to 23.01.2017 to lift the ban of Jallikattu. Since the petitioner's son was advised not to participate in the protest since mobs started pelting stones at the agitators, he did not participate in the protest. However, on 23.01.2017 at about 3.00 P.M., while the petitioner's son was sitting in his house, he has heard noise from out side of the house. He came out of the house and saw a huge number many police personnel chasing the crowd and started to fire gun towards the crowd, who were standing near Kalankarai Railway Station, Chennai. Thereafter, due to fear, the petitioner and his father went inside the house and locked themselves in. However, the police had broken the doors and had trespassed the house and pulled out the petitioner and his son from the house and the petitioner's son was brutally attacked by the police persons and as such he sustained injury in his left eye. Later, he filed a petition before this Court in Crl.O.P.No.5091 of 2017, seeking to direct the concerned officials to appoint a team of expert Ophthalmologist and provide proper treatment and to pay Rs.50,00,000/- towards compensation to his son for having lost his left eye. This Court, while disposing of the said petition, observed that it is the duty of the State Government to provide treatment and gave liberty to the petitioner to file a fresh writ petition for claiming compensation and hence, the petitioner has come forward with the present Writ Petition.

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3.On a perusal of the counter filed by the 5 respondent and also on the submissions made by Mr.R.Thirumoorthy, learned counsel for the petitioner revealed that the petitioner's son had participated in the protest to lift the ban of Jallikattu. During the protest, among the agitators, there was an incident that had taken place by pelting stones, due to which the petitioner's son was sustained injury on his left eye and lost his eye vision. In fact, the petitioner was admitted in the Eye hospital due to the injury cause by unknown agitators who were pelting stones.

4.On a perusal of the records, it is also revealed that the petitioner's son sustained injury by hurling stones by the unknown agitators on 23.01.2017 at about 3.00 P.M. at Loyd's Road. The petitioner is residing at Triplicane. But the petitioner's son sustained injury on his left eye at Loyds Road. It is just opposite to the Marina Beach where the protest was held. Therefore, another version of the petitioner cannot be accepted since there was no lathi charge by the police personnel on the petitioner's son. However, now the only issue to decide is whether the petitioner's son is entitled for the compensation when he participated in the Jallikkattu protest and sustained injury due to the stones pelted by the agitators or not. To decide this issue, the learned counsel for the petitioner relied upon an order of this Court dated 02.08.2016 in WP No.40800 of 2002 in the case of “S.Krishnaswamy Vs. The State of Tamilnadu , The Secretary to the Government, Home Department and 3 Others”. This Court dealt with the case where an injured was travelling in the bus while there was agitation and the agitators had pelted big stones on the roof of the bus and thereafter, directly hit the persons. Due to which, the petitioner therein, sustained lost of entire eye vision