THE Madras High Court’s judgment, on September 29, 2023, upholding the human rights of the people of Vachathi in Tamil Nadu is remarkable – as a constitutional court, it unmasked and recognised that coordinated and large-scale repression by uniformed forces cannot take place without orders from or complicity at the top levels of the government.The court said, “In order to safeguard the actual smugglers and the big-shots, the revenue officers, police officials and also the forest officials, with the help of the then government, played a big stage drama (sic), in which the innocent tribal wom