The orderly system, a vestige of the colonial hangover, is grabbing headlines in the extreme southern part of the country, with the Madras High Court sounding hell-bent on its complete eradication. In an attempt to enforce its complete abolition, the court refused to entertain the report filed by the Director General of Tamil Nadu Police, saying the orderly system stands completely abolished in the state. The court on Friday asked the Chief Secretary and the Home Secretary of the state for an explanation.
The bench comprising justice SM Subramaniam and justice C Kumarappan referred to recent news reports suggesting that uniformed personnel continued to be made to work as orderlies at the residences of serving and retired government officials.
The HC came down heavily on it, as the orderly system had been abolished way back in 1979 through the government order.
To cap it, justice Subramaniam had ordered, in August 2022, a complete abolition of the orderly system in the state and had directed the authorities to remove the orderlies posted to the residence of retired officials. It had warned of disciplinary action if any complaint was received.
It had also directed the state Home Ministry to take strict action against higher officials, including departmental action and recovery of orderly’s salary from errant official, whenever an incident of practising the orderly system was reported. However, the court lamented even in 2024, while dealing with another case, that despite several court orders, the practice continues to exist.
In the present case, the court’s direction came while hearing a petition filed by Advocate A Radhakrishnan, seeking police protection based on his representation.
It was when the court questioned whether its earlier order on abolishing the orderly system had been complied with that the State Public Prosecutor submitted a circular issued by the DGP-incharge Abhay Kumar Singh calling for the complete eradication of the system of posting police personnel as orderlies to the residences of serving and retired police officers for unofficial work.
The court suggested installing a real-time tracking system in the DGP’s office for effective monitoring of all the officials on other duties.
The court adjourned the case to January 7.
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