The Madras High Court, on 14 August 2025, directed the immediate release of four lawyers and two law students who had been detained by Chennai Police during a protest by sanitary workers outside the Chennai Corporation building. The case was heard by Justice M.S. Ramesh and Justice V. Lakshminarayanan in Habeas Corpus Petition No.1599 of 2025.
According to the petitioner, several lawyers and law students went missing following the protest. While police records showed that four lawyers - K. Bharathi, K. Suresh, Mohan Babu, and R. Raj Kumar - along with two law students, Muthuselvan and Valarmathi, were arrested, the remaining one lawyer and six law students were only questioned and later released.
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The Additional Advocate General informed the court that the arrested individuals were booked under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, and the Tamil Nadu Public Property (Prevention of Damage and Loss) Act, for alleged involvement in causing damage to public buses. Video clippings and an accident register of an injured woman constable were presented as evidence.
However, the court noted that the injury report did not directly implicate the detenues and that the bus damage appeared to have occurred after the accused were taken into custody. The judges expressed a prima facie view that the detention was unlawful and observed that the arrested individuals had not been produced before the magistrate for remand.
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"The detention of the four lawyers and two law students by the police may be unlawful,"
The court remarked, ordering their release with the condition that they refrain from making public statements or social media posts on the issue until the next hearing on 21 August 2025.
Case Title: S. Vijay vs The Commissioner of Police & Another
Case Number: HCP No.1599 of 2025
