Ranchi, Oct 11 (PTI) A day after a tribal community gheraoed the civil court in Jharkhand's Latehar district and attacked police personnel, the high court on Tuesday took suo motu cognisance of the incident and ordered the chief secretary and DGP to file responses on the matter.

Police burst tear gas shells and used water cannons to disperse members of the Tana Bhagat community when they gheraoed the civil court and locked the chamber of the principal judge for hours on Monday.

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They were demanding closure of the court alleging that the district administration was ignoring constitutional provisions in vogue in the area.

The High Court of Jharkhand in an oral observation said that such an incident occurring in the compound of a court seems to be a complete intelligence failure.

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A division bench comprising Chief Justice Dr Ravi Ranjan and Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad summoned Chief Secretary Sukhdev Singh and Director General of Police Neeraj Sinha to appear before it in person.

After they appeared, the bench directed them to file their individual responses on the incident at Latehar, about 110 km from the Jharkhand capital Ranchi.

The security of the court was compromised and the police ought to have been more vigilant in the matter, the bench stated.

The court ordered the government to ensure strict security in the court compound.

The matter will be heard again next week.

The protestors, activists of the Akhil Bharatiya Tana Bhagat Sangh, claimed that the functioning of courts, and employment and entry of outsiders in Latehar district is prohibited under the 5th schedule of the Constitution. They also threatened to continue the agitation till the government institutions, administration, police and judiciary are handed over to them.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)