CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has directed the Chennai Police to maintain the sanctioned strength of 252 personnel "at all times" on the court premises.

Passing orders on a taken-up writ petition, the First Bench of Chief Justice A.P. Shah and Justice K. Chandru said: "No personnel, who is coming within the sanctioned strength of 252 comprising various categories shall be deputed to any other work, except for the work of the High Court, and no diversion of the force will be permitted except with the prior permission of the Chief Justice." Earlier, the Chennai City Commissioner of Police filed an affidavit stating that despite a "gigantic vacancy of 2,096 police personnel in the Chennai City Police," they had maintained the sanctioned strength. She said the police required a minimum space of 4,000 square feet on the campus to create an outpost and accommodate the personnel.

The judges said the Registrar-General would indicate a suitable place for constructing accommodation for locating the outpost and the police would construct a building at their own cost.

As for the security for the residences of the judges, the Bench said the Chief Secretary and the Home Secretary should ascertain the number of personnel required within four weeks. They shall also issue an order sanctioning the strength of the personnel and file a compliance report in the court in two weeks thereafter. Adequate training shall be given to the police force as suggested by the court-appointed special committee, the order read.

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