NEW DELHI, July 13 -- Can courts take suo motu cognizance of matters and initiate hearing?
Yes, ostensibly.
Not long ago, during a suo motu hearing of a public interest matter, a High Court Bench maintained that it "is not required to wait necessarily for a person to come before it to ring the bell of justice. The Courts are meant to impart justice and no court can shut its eyes if a public unjust is happening just before it".
More recently, a Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court took suo motu cognisance to action an alleged custodial death of a father-son duo aged 59 and 31 years respectively, reported in Tamil Nadu's Sattankulam Taluk of Thoothukkudi District on 22 and 23 June.
What is disconcerting is the brazen impunity with which...