Eight months after the infamous clash between police and lawyers on the Madras High Court campus, a Division Bench directed the state government on Thursday to suspend four senior city police officers, including the Commissioner and his second-in-command, and initiate appropriate disciplinary proceedings against them for their role in the violence.

The officers — K Radhakrishnan, the then Commissioner of Chennai; A K Viswanathan, the then Additional Commissioner; Ramasubramani, the then Joint Commissioner (North), and Prem Anand Sinha, the then Deputy Commissioner, Flower Bazaar — were responsible for the incident on the High Court campus and police excesses in violation of statutory provisions, including Police Standing Orders, observed the High Court.

“To enable fair and unbiased inquiry,” noted the court disposing of a batch of petitions, “it will be in order for the state government to exercise its discretion to place the officers under suspension pending disciplinary action.” A prima facie case has been made against the four officers for causing ‘obstruction in the course of administration of justice’, observed the Bench, comprising Justices F M Ibrahim Kalifulla and R Banumathi, initiating contempt proceedings against them.

The court let off 12 other senior officers maintaining that no case had been made out to initiate action against them, though with the rider that they would face action if found guilty in connection with the criminal case over the violence.