Lathicharge on students: Madras HC declines to hear plea urgently

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court today declined to entertain a plea for an urgent hearing on the police lathicharge on students of a private college who were staging a protest here seeking closure of a liquor outlet.

The First Bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice TS Sivagnanam directed the petitioner, advocate Arogya Das, "to file the petition which will be taken up for hearing in regular course".

The advocate made a special mention on the lathi-charge on students of Pachiyappa's College yesterday and wanted the court to hear the petition urgently.

He brought to the notice of the court newspaper reports in this regard.

The Chief Justice said he has also seen the newspapers and observed that "nobody can take the law into their own hands".

The stir, as part of anti-liquor protests in the state, turned violent when some unidentified men, believed to be students, ransacked the outlet and damaged stocks of alcoholic beverages there.