Deputy Tehsildar can order firing if TN govt notifies him as executive magistrate, says former judge

‘Firing order given by magistrate is a joke’

C Shivakumar @ Chennai:

The deputy tehsildars, who have been named in the first Information report of giving orders to fire at anti-Sterlite protesters, have the powers of executive magistrate if they are notified by the government under the Code of Criminal Procedure, according to Madras High Court judge K Chandru.

Chandru told Express that power can be delegated from the district collector to revenue divisional officer to tehsildat to zonal deputy tehsildar. “For all this a Government a Government Order is required,” said the judge who had been witness to various incidents during his tensure as judge.

He said that all this is cooking up of events after the incident has happened. “As soon as the agitation started, they would have issued a notification diversifying the power of executive magistrate,” he said, adding that firing order given by the magistrate is a joke.

“How they would have got statement from him. They will not go before the commission of enquiry and they even won’t have problem in deposing falsely before the commission,” alleged Chandru.

“In every police firing, this is what happens. I am seeing it from 1971 during several enquiry commissions. They will come and depose that they only gave the orders. I myself is an eyewitness to Annamalai University Lathicharge. The police never gave such warning. But before the commission they will depose that they gave warning and fired in air. In Paramakudi, it was exparte firing and they can say whatever they want. In the end, Commission will justify the firing and say all rules have been followed. It is like a cat and mouse game,” he said.

“If you have a effective criminal side lawyer and a court where the hearing is held then the whole theory could be demolished,” the former judge added.

Former bureaucrat M G Deivasahayam has said that the FIR has not mentioned who gave the order under which the deputy tahsildar has been given powers of executive magistrate. “He was an election tahsildar. The FIR also does not mention sections 302/304 and 307 as deaths had taken place due to the firing. The FIR proves malafide intention of the district administration,” he said.

Deivasahayam also said alleged that Section 80 of the Water Act which was invoked to seal Sterlite could easily be stayed in the court. Water Act is a Central government. It would be good to see how the Centre acts to it,” he said.

People’s Watch Henri Tiphagne said that the two FIRs were not made public through the Online system. “Usually to protect the district collector, they have created such record. And since they did not get any tehsildar, they roped in a deputy tehsildar to give firing order. This itself highlights the mindset,” said Henri.