Karur Stampede Row: Madras High Court Seeks SOP For Political Meetings By November 20; State Holding Consultation With Political Parties

The Madras High Court has extended the time granted to the State government to formulate a draft Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to be followed when granting permissions for political parties to conduct public meetings. The bench of Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice G Arul Murugan took note of the submissions of Additional Advocate General J Ravindran, who informed the court that the State had prepared a draft SOP and had called for suggestions from the recognised and registered political parties in the State towards the same.The AAG submitted that on 6th November 2025, a meeting had been convened with all recognised political parties in the State. He added that 20 parties had participated in the meeting, and their suggestions/objections towards the draft SOP were sought. He also informed that an email had been sent to all the registered political parties, and their suggestions were also sought. He submitted that all these suggestions/objections would be considered at the time of framing the final SOP and sought time to complete the process. At this point, Advocate Arivazhagan, appearing for the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) party, submitted that it had given its suggestions through mail. The AAG, however, denied the same and submitted that the State had not received any email from the party yet. Advocate AP Suryaprakasam, appearing for Desiya Makkal Sakthi Katchi, also informed the court that they were not called for the meeting. The court asked both the political parties to submit their suggestions/objections by today. Noting that these suggestions/objections would also have to be considered by the State, the court gave 10 days to the State to submit the draft. On October 27, the court had directed the state to come up with the SOP within 10 days. The court 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.The court also made it clear 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.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 matter was taken up today, the court made it clear that it would not entertain any more impleading petitions, except those filed by other political parties in the State. The court remarked that if it were to give audience to every person asking to be heard, the proceedings would continue indefinitely. "We will not allow everybody to have a say. Everyday the case is taken up, someone will come and say they have a say. We can't give audience to everyone. Otherwise it will become an unending procedure," the court said. When a case was mentioned seeking departmental action against the District Collector, the Superintendent of Police, the Deputy Superintendent of Police, and the Inspector of Police in Karur for alleged failure of duty in connection with the Karur Stampede Tragedy, the court remarked that the matter was still under investigation and at this point, the court could not order inquiry against the officers ."We don't even know the cause of the stampede, It is still under investigation. How can we order inquiry against officers?," the court asked. Eventually, the court granted 10 days to the State to submit the draft SOP after taking into consideration the suggestions/objections by other political parties. Case Title: A Thirukumaran and Another and batch pleasCase No: WP (MD) 28971 of 2025

Karur Stampede Row: Madras High Court Seeks SOP For Political Meetings By November 20; State Holding Consultation With Political Parties

Upasana Sajeev

Tags