The direction was issued on a public interest litigation petition filed by a Madurai-based advocate, seeking various forms of relief.
The Madras High Court on Friday directed its Registry to place before the Chief Justice, all cases related to framing of guidelines/ Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) with respect to conduct of political rallies and such other events in order to prevent tragedies such as the death of 41 people during a campaign by Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) leader C. Joseph Vijay in Karur on September 27.
First Division Bench of Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice G. Arul Murugan directed the High Court Registry to place the matter before the Chief Justice, on administrative side, so that he may issue necessary instructions for listing the cases before an appropriate Division Bench and ensure a joint hearing of all those cases.
The direction was issued on a public Interest litigation petition filed by a Madurai based advocate C. Selvakumar seeking various reliefs including a direction to the State government to make the leaders of political parties liable if there were casualties due to the mobilization of women and children for political rallies and similar events.
The petitioner had also sought a direction to the Election Commission of India to derecognise TVK. However, the ECI standing counsel informed the court that TVK was only a registered political party and not a recognised political party and therefore, the question of derecognising it would not arise at all.
Further the PIL petitioner had also sought a direction to the Karur Town police to alter the First Information Report (FIR) registered in connection with the Karur stampede tragedy and include the name of Mr. vijay as one of the suspects in the case.
The Chief Justice’s bench refused to issue any such direction since the Supreme Court was seized of the criminal proceedings related to the Karur tragedy and it had already transferred the probe to the Central Bureau of Investigation.
The PIL petition listed before the Division Bench on Friday was originally filed before the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court, much before the Supreme Court had ordered the CBI probe, and was thereafter transferred to the principal seat in Chennai.
Published – October 17, 2025 10:52 pm IST
