PIL for Jaya’s SPG cover disallowed

Chennai: The Madras high court on Monday dismissed a public interest litigation whi­ch sought a direction to the authorities concerned to provide special prote­ction group (SPG) security to chief minister J. Jayal­alithaa.

Recording the submissions of advocate general A.L. Somayaji that adequ­ate security has already been provided to the chief minister, a division bench comprising Justices S.K. Agnihotri and K.K. Sasi­dharan dismissed the petition filed by advocate M. Balaji.

In his petition, Balaji said in view of escalation of risks and threat to the life of the CM, because of her proper timely action against the terrorists, the SPG cover was necessary.

He sought a direction to provide SPG security to CM or give equal training by the SPG team to sele­cted police officials from TN  and procure weapons like ultra-modern FN Her­stal ass­a­ult rifles, bes­ides world-class ballistic protection gear and high-tech communication gear and other things immediately for her security.

Observing that the litigant has filed this petition only on an apprehension re­garding security threat to the CM, the bench noted the contention of the state that the security provided at present was sufficient and there were competent officers in the state force to provide full-fledged security. “Since the state police was providing foolproof security to the CM, there is no basis for the ap­prehension raised by the petitioner,” the bench ad­ded.

The bench said the petitioner has no case that state police committed se­r­ious lapse in providing security to the CM. More­over, there was also no incident of security lapse.

In any case, it was for the Security Review Comm­ittee to consider the security aspects and the threat perception. In view of the submission made by the state with regard to the adequate security provided to the chief minister, “We do not feel it necessary to issue any kind of direction to provide SPG security to the CM at this moment,” the bench noted and dismissed the plea for special protection.