Madras High Court dismisses plea challenging appointment of Venkatraman as Tamil Nadu DGP in-charge

The Madras High Court, on Thursday (September 11, 2025), dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) petition challenging the appointment of G. Venkatraman as the Director General of Police/Head of Police Force (DGP/HoPF) in-charge until the regular appointment of an officer to the post.

First Division Bench of Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice G. Arul Murugan said someone must be appointed on an ad hoc basis to perform the duties of the office, until the regular appointment, and hence such ad hoc appointment could not be challenged.

The judges also took note that the Supreme Court had already passed certain orders on September 8 with respect to the appointment of a DGP on regular basis. Therefore, the challenge now made to the ad hoc arrangement was completely baseless, they observed.

R. Varadaraj (69), a former Inspector of Police-turned-advocate and now president of Nethaji Makkal Katchi, had filed the PIL plea claiming to have been continuously engaged with public grievances relating to policing, accountability, and governance.

He contended that the State government ought to have taken steps to appoint a regular DGP/HoPF, especially when several eligible Indian Police Service officers were available in the State than appointing an ad hoc DGP/HOPF by delaying the process of appointing a regular DGP.