Madras High Court: In the suicide case inside the premises of the Madras High Court, S.M. /Subramaniam, J. has observed that the Court must look into the facts and mitigating circumstances resulted in commission of suicide by the deceased in view of the non-issuance of community certificate to his son, as such an attempt of suicide cannot be kept unnoticed as it would result in serious repercussions
The members of the Madras High Court Bar Association have submitted before the Court for initiation of appropriate action against the attempt to commit suicide by the deceased inside the premises of the Court.
The Court noted that the deceased belonged to Narikuravar Community and on 11.10.2022, he tried ending his life inside the premises of the Court by burning himself, while shouting that he was deprived of getting a community certificate for his son by the revenue authorities, although he had approached the authorities repeatedly. The police on duty inside the Court swiftly acted upon and sent the deceased to the Government hospital, however, unfortunately, he died in the hospital on 12.10.2022.
The Court observed that prima facie it was found that the son of the deceased was deprived of his community certificate, though he belongs to Narikuravar Community; and the authorities are expected to respond to the applications submitted by the citizen for issuance of community certificates. It was also observed that citizens cannot be made to run pillar to post for the purpose of getting community certificates.
The Court further viewed that community certificate is an important document for citizen for the purpose of availing the benefit of reservation and other benefits granted by the Government, and the frustration regarding the non-issue of the certificate to the son of the deceased resulted in commission of suicide inside the premises of the Court. Thus, the Court viewed that it must examine whether the rights of the deceased and his son to get community certificate was infringed or not, and what is the reason for non-issuance of certificate by the revenue authorities.
Thus, the Court initiated suo motu writ petition in order to examine the facts and circumstances and the rights of the deceased and that of his son; further, the Commissioner for revenue administration, and the District Collector of Kancheepuram District are impleaded as parties in the suo motu writ proceedings for the purpose of submitting their response.
[Velmurugan In re, 2022 SCC OnLine Mad 4855 ,decided on 12.10.2022]
