Karur Stampede | Madras High Court Asks State To Frame SOP For Political Meetings Within 10 Days

The Madras High Court on Monday directed the State government to formulate, within 10 days, a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to be followed when granting permissions for political parties to conduct public meetings. The bench of Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivasthava and Justice G Arul Murugan was hearing a batch of pleas in connection with the Karur Stampede Tragedy that took place on September 27, claiming 41 lives. The bench also told the State that it should consider the applications filed by political parties seeking permissions within a time frame, allowing the parties to make arrangements for complying with the directions imposed. "There should be guidelines applicable for political parties. You should also grant permission few days before the meeting so that they can also mobilise resources for complying with the guidelines. All this is intended to take care of the public safety and law and order. Come out with an SOP otherwise we'll issue directions," the court orally remarked.The court thus directed the State to come up with the SOP within 10 days, failing which it would issue directions. The court also emphasised that the pendency of cases, in connection with the framing of the SOP, would not be an impediment for the State to consider applications filed by other political parties seeking permission for a public meeting, provided that the meeting was not to be conducted on national or state highways. "Direct the state to ensure its submission within 10 days from today. Other parties to the case may also submit their own suggestions. Direct these cases for immediate orders after 10 days. Post on Nov 11. Pendency of these petitions should not be treated as an impediment for considering applications for conducting meetings of any political parties except where permission is sought to hold meetings on state/national highways. This order will however be subject to order made by the SC in the pending case," the court said. The court was hearing a batch of cases seeking to frame a SOP for granting permission for political events. It may be noted that the TVK party had initially approached the High Court seeking direction to the authorities to consider their application for permission for political meetings. On September 18, a single judge of the High Court had asked the state to frame rules that could be followed while granting permissions for all political parties. The judge had suggested that the State impose a condition, asking the parties to make a pre-deposit before seeking permission, which could then be used towards payment of compensation in case of damages. Following the Karur Stampede, similar petitions were filed seeking to frame an SOP for political gatherings. Since the petition filed by the TVK party was already pending, a division bench of the High Court had disposed of the petitions, granting liberty to the parties to implead themselves in the pending petitions. Meanwhile, the State had also assured the High Court that it would not grant permissions for any political party's public meeting till the framing of the SOP.When the case was taken up today, the CJ wondered why the cases, which sought permission for political meetings were tagged as criminal cases. To this, the Additional Advocate General informed the bench that since the relief was sought against the police in the State, it had been posted as a criminal case. The AAG also informed the bench that the SOP was in the process and various stakeholders had to be consulted in the process, including police, health, fire safety, etc.The AAG also informed the bench that there was no impediment for the political parties to conduct meetings at the designated places, and the bar was only on conducting meetings at state and national highways. Senior Advocate Raghavachari, appearing for TVK party submitted that they had approached the court seeking permission in August itself, much before the unfortunate incident took place. He also pointed out that since there was a delay on state's part in granting permission, there was difficulty in making arrangements. "We had come to the court in August itself. Had they given us permission and assistance much earlier, none of this would have happened," he said. Raghavachari also pointed out that the police were imposing conditions for some parties only. He submitted that if the authorities were imposing conditions, the same should be uploaded on the official website, allowing people to make arrangements. "For some parties there are 11 conditions. For me there were 23. For some parties, no conditions. We don't know what conditions were imposed. Let them upload on the official website. Suppose of they officially post that traffic is going to be blocked at such places, people can plan accordingly," Raghavachari said. AAG however claimed that TVK had submitted an application for permission on 25th September only.Senior Advocate Vijay Narayan, appearing for All India Anna Dravida...

Karur Stampede | Madras High Court Asks State To Frame SOP For Political Meetings Within 10 Days

Upasana Sajeev

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