N. SUBRAMONIAN Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner, while holding the post of Superintendent, Central Jail, Cannanore was placed under suspension as per the order Ex. P1 dated 19-1-1972 passed by the State Government. He has approached this court with this writ petition challenging the validity of Ex. P1 and praying that it should be quashed.

(2.) Before proceeding to deal with the contentions put forward by both sides it is necessary to extract the full text of the impugned order. Ex. P1 reads:

(3.) Two batches of remand prisoners concerned with some incidents of rioting fin Tellicherry were admitted into the Central Jail, Cannanore on 1-1-1972 and, 3-1-1972 respectively; most of them were released on 7-1-1972 on instructions having been received from the Executive First Class Magistrate, Tellicherry that they had been enlarged on bail. It would appear that subsequent to the release of the said prisoners reports were received by the Minister in charge of Prisons that they had complained to the 4th respondent that some of them had allegedly been subjected to ill treatment at the time of their admission into the Central Jail. The impugned action purports to have been taken on the basis of the results of a preliminary investigation made into that matter. What is alleged against the petitioner is that he had failed to make proper arrangements for the admission of the large number of remand prisoners concerned in certain occurrences of rioting that took place in Tellicherry and that the petitioner had also not taken timely action against the subordinate officers against whom there were allegations that they assaulted some of the prisoners.