Madras High Court directs T.N. government to submit second draft of SOP for political rallies on November 21

The Madras High Court, on Tuesday (November 11, 2025), granted 10 more days for Tamil Nadu government to prepare the second draft of the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to be followed during political meetings and other large gatherings to prevent mishaps such as the Karur stampede at actor Vijay’s TVK rally, which claimed 41 lives.

First Division Bench of Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice G. Arul Murugan ordered the second draft should be prepared after taking into consideration the suggestions made by various political parties which participated in an all-party meeting convened by the government on November 6.

The Bench said, the suggestions to be made by Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) and Desiya Makkal Sakthi Katchi (DMSK), which were represented before the High Court but had not been invited for the meeting, could also be considered before the submission of the second draft in the court on November 21.

During the hearing, TVK lawyer S. Arivazhagan complained about lack of uniformity in granting permission for political meets and accused the police of singling out TVK and imposing onerous conditions on it. Advocate A.P. Suryaprakasam for DMSK, said, the first draft SOP prepared by the government would cripple smaller parties.

One month’s time sought

Though Additional Advocate General J. Ravindran sought a month’s time for submission of the second draft after obtaining the suggestions to the first draft which the government had circulated among the political parties, the Chief Justice said, such a long time could not be granted and insisted on finalising the SOP at the earliest.

Senior counsel Vijay Narayan, representing the AIADMK, filed an impleading petition and said, the principal opposition party in the State had submitted a detailed memorandum of objections, to the first draft SOP, to the Home Secretary on Monday (November 10) and listed out all its concerns.

‘Govt. events exempted’

The senior counsel pointed out the first draft SOP prepared by the government had exempted from its purview the events conducted by the Centre, State government and related institutions. He said, such an exemption was arbitrary and it defies logic.

Stating the government bodies could only be exempted from making security deposits, he said, all other guidelines must be followed for government events too especially in the light of five deaths reported due to heat stroke at an air show conducted at the Marina beach in Chennai on October 6 in 2024.

Religious congregations

Similarly, the SOP must be made applicable even to religious gatherings in which more than 5,000 people participate. “It is not as if a mishap will not happen in religous gatherings,” Mr. Narayan said and insisted the authorities concerned must follow the SOP even for large religious gatherings.

AIADMK also insisted the police must take a call on granting permission for the events within three days from the date of submission of applications so that the organisers could have enough time to approach the court in case of rejection of the applications.

The party further objected to the power conferred on the officials to amend the SOP. “This is not correct and ought not to be done. The officials cannot be vested with such wide powers… The very purpose of having clear cut guidelines would stand defeated by such a diluting provision,” its memorandum to the government read.

AIADMK also took objection to the SOP not spelling out the responsibilities of the police to provide security and follow better crowd management practices. “The SOP appears more as a set of rules laid down only for the event organisers and has no protocol to be followed by the police. This should not be the case,” it said.