The High Court of Tripura taking a suo-moto cognizance of the incident of Sabroom where a woman was barbarically humiliated leading to her suicide, issued notices to the State of Tripura through the Chief Secretary, Director General of Police, the Superintendent of Police, South Tripura District and SDPO, Sabroom seeking full report of the incident that the Court termed “grossest possible violation of human rights”. The Court directed the respondents to file their replies within Friday.
The High Division Bench Comprising Chief Justice AA Kureshi and Justice S Talapatra instituted the suo moto proceedings after going through media reports on the incident.
“The High Court decided to take cognizance of these news reports in a suo-motu public interest petition of which advance copies were provided to the learned Advocate General, learned Government Advocate and learned Public Prosecutor. We do not accept the news story and would not accept it without full verification. However, even if a fraction of what is reported is true, it would shock the conscience of any citizen. Under the circumstances, we would like to gather full facts from the State administration for which purpose the authorities shall be shown as respondents in this public interest petition”, the Court order reads.
The Court has instructed authorities to submit the video footage mentioned in the news articles with the Court along with statements from the family members of the deceased.
“If any photographs or video footage are available of the alleged incident, the same shall be produced before the Court. The family members of the deceased woman shall be provided full protection and statements of such family members, if not already recorded, shall be recorded without any further delay. We are happy to record that the learned Advocate General and the Government Advocates have assured that this shall not be treated as an adversarial litigation and that they would provide fullest assistance to the Court so that the whole truth is brought on record and the matter is taken to its logical conclusion”, the order added.
The Court also sought to know the progress of inquiry in the matter and directed Government advocate and public prosecutors to waive notice on behalf of the respondents listed in the order.
“Learned Government Advocate waives notice on behalf of respondent No.1. Learned Public Prosecutor waives notice on behalf of rest of the respondents. By way of interim measures, following directions are issued: The respondents shall produce before the Court the status of inquiry so far carried out in relation to the said alleged incident including in relation to the unnatural death of the lady”, the order reads.