Karur Stampede: Supreme Court Reserves Judgement In TVK's Appeal Against Madras High Court Order

Today, the Supreme Court reserved judgement in the SLP filed by the Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK), a political party, challenging the order of Madras High Court directing constitution of a Special Investigation Team to conduct independent investigation on the Karur Stampede incident.

The Bench of Justice J K Maheshwari and Justice N V Anjaria heard the matter at length and reserved the judgement.

At the outset, Senior Advocate Gopal Subramanian, appearing for TVK, submitted that the Writ Petition before the Madras High Court was for a limited purpose of giving guidelines in the nature of SOP for conducting road shows.

Subramanian also emphasized that the High Court passed the order of constituting SIT and disposed of the Petition without hearing TVK.

Upon which, Justice Maheshwari questioned whether the relief to formulate SOP would fall within criminal writ petition.  Subramanian agreed that it was not a case within the domain of writ petition of criminal nature.

Senior Advocate Aryama Sundaram, also appearing for TVK, submitted that they don't intend to challenge investigation by SIT, however, suggested that a retired judge of the Supreme Court should monitor the same to ensure a fair and impartial investigation.

Subramanian referred the judgment passed by the High Court at length and pointed out that TVK was not heard and it would hamper the political party's image.

Senior Advocate P. Wilson , appearing for the State of Tamil Nadu, submitted that the stampede like situation was created as it was advertised by TVK that the Actor Vijay would visit at 12 noon, resultantly, people started gathering since 7 AM in the morning. He emphasized that the actor failed to visit at the scheduled time.

After going through the particulars on record, Justice Maheshwari said, "Two things emerge. One. Nature of writ petition... One set of petition was filed- SOP. One in Chennai, one in Madurai. Madurai Bench taken cognizance by division bench. Chennai was by single-judge...We have seen the representation also. We are on factual aspect. Where is the need to take the cognisance? And that too it is being taken by division bench? Karur incidence of Madurai?"

Subsequently, Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi, also appearing for the State of Tamil Nadu, informed the Court that multiple Petitions has been filed with regard to the Karur incident.

After hearing the matter at length by all the parties concerned, the Bench reserved the judgement in the appeal.

Background

A Writ Petition was filed at the Madras High Court to frame guidelines in the nature of SOP for the conducting of road show. The Petition was presented following a roadshow that was permitted by the Respondent at Karur and stated that a major man-made disaster occurred at the said event, resulting in the loss of 41 lives.

The Madras High Court condemned the conduct of Tamil Nadu Actor Vijay, the organisers of the event and the members of the political party for fleeing from the scene of stampede and stated that it was incumbent upon such a party to have taken immediate steps to rescue and assist individuals caught in the stampede like situation arising from the massive crowd in which many children, women, and several young persons tragically lost their lives.

The Madras High Court also observed, “It is to be noted that the Hon'ble President of India, Hon'ble Prime Minister, Hon'ble Union Home Minister has condoled the incident. The Hon'ble Chief Minister, Tamil Nadu visited the hospital on early hours. The leader of the opposition, Tamil Nadu and almost all the political parties have expressed their concerns and many leaders of the political parties came to the scene of occurrence and participated in the rescue process. When that being the situation, it is really sad that Mr.Vijay, the leader and the members of his political party which organised the meeting fled the scene of occurrence.”

Given the depth of the situation, the Court constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to conduct an impartial and thorough investigation.

Cause Title: Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam V. P.H Dinesh (Diary No. 58048-2025 II-C)