In a snub to the Tamil Nadu Government, the Madras High Court today upheld the POTA Review Committee’s order, asking the state to provide all documents of a POTA case to Nakeeran editor R.R. Gopal and others.‘‘The review committee has ample powers to order furnishing copies when situation is brought to its notice,’’ Chief Justice B. Subhashan Reddy and Justice A. Kulasekaran said. The state government had moved the plea before the bench for a second time after the single-judge bench of Justice M. Chokkalingam rejected it in the morning.The judge had pointed out that both the parties in the case had approached the Supreme Court for directions then and there and the apex court had also passed orders thereon. Thus, the SC was seized of the matter. ‘‘In such circumstances, without going into the merits or otherwise of the rival contentions put forth before this court, this court is of the considered opinion that it would not be proper on its part to pass any order or issue any direction in this regard. Therefore, this court cannot grant the relief as asked for by the state,’’ the judge had observed and dismissed the writ petition.The state preferred a writ appeal in the afternoon. This time, the bench said the Review Committee had ample powers to pass the interim order. Furnishing of documents as directed by the Review Committee was essential and vital for effective representation by Gopal and others. The court also said the state could not object to the Review Committee’s not providing reasons for seeking the documents. The bench asked the Tamil Nadu government to furnish the documents by 2 pm tomorrow.Earlier in the day, 11 POTA detainees, who were on hungerstrike for over a fortnight, demanding the repeal of the anti-terrorism law, ended their fast following a plea from former Delhi HC Judge Rajinder Sachar. A team of human rights activists led by the ex-judge visited the prisoners at Central Jail this morning and convinced them to give up the hungerstrike. ‘‘After much persuasion, they decided to withdraw the strike,’’ Sachar said.The 11 prisoners are among 26 Radical Youth League volunteers, arrested in November 2002 under POTA and behind bars since then. Three of the six women POTA prisoners, who are lodged in Vellore Jail, have also been on hungerstrike since August 28.
