Disappointed over the inquiry being conducted into the 2018 Thoothukudi firing that claimed the lives of 13 people protesting against Sterlite Copper, Madurai-based NGO People’s Watch has asked the government to constitute a fresh commission of inquiry.

The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Wednesday directed the Sub-Collector of Thoothukudi not to pass any final orders pursuant to the proceedings initiated against anti-Sterlite protesters under Sections 107 and 111 of the CrPC.

Human rights activists, who voiced their support for families of victims of those killed and injured during the anti-Sterlite rally in Thoothukudi on May 22 last year, have been humiliated by the district administration and Police, Henri Tiphagne, executive director of ‘People’s Watch’, a Madurai based human rights organisation, said.

Madurai: Observing that it is the fundamental right of the people to protest in a peaceful manner, the Madurai bench of the Madras high court has directed the sub-divisional magistrate/ sub-collector of Tuticorin not to pass any final orders in the proceedings initiated under Sections 107 and 111 CrPC against anti-Sterlite protesters. It further directed the police not to issue summons to the protesters.

Tuticorin: The state government, whose police fired at the protesters in Tuticorin killing 13 people one year ago, seems to believe that parameters of justice is providing Rs20 lakh compensation and a bottom rung government job to the victims’ kin. While no single government official has been held accountable so far, the government’s disinterest in providing rehabilitation to the devastated families is appalling, say activists.

MADURAI: If it was not for the high court intervention and the timely judgments, things would have been worse in Thoothukudi," read a report from NGO People’s Watch, which was released during the first anniversary of the Tuticorin police firings, in which 13 people were killed and hundreds injured.

The courts made several significant directives in the case which rattled the conscience of the public in recent times. If not for the court’s intervention, the investigation would have still been with the state police and not much would have come out of it, said the NGO.