Madras HC cancels urgent hearing on Karur stampede tragedy
THE Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court will hear on Monday (September 29, 2025) afternoon a case to be filed by Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) regarding the death of as many as 40 individuals during a campaign by its leader C. Joseph Vijay at Velusamypuram in Karur district on Saturday (September 27, 2025).
A Dussehra vacation Bench of Justices M. Dhandapani and M. Jothiraman would hear the case since Karur district falls under the territorial jurisdiction of the Madurai Bench.
The decision was taken following a mention made by TVK lawyer S. Arivazhagan at the residence of Justice Dhandapani in Chennai on Sunday (September 28, 2025).
During the mention, the lawyer levelled several allegations against the State government as well as the police and claimed that autopsy was conducted even without identifying the bodies. Justice Dhandapani expressed his deep sorrow over the loss of lives and said, it was a shocking incident.
Thereafter, the judge had a word with Justice Jothiraman and agreed to hear the case on Monday (September 29, 2025) afternoon if an appropriate petition gets filed and numbered by then.
In the meantime, Justice N. Senthilkumar of the Madras High Court initially agreed to hear a case at the principal seat of the High Court in Chennai at 4.30 p.m. on Sunday (September 28, 2025) for preventing the Director General of Police/ Head of Police Force from granting permission to any further public gatherings by the TVK until the conclusion of an inquiry regarding the Saturday’s (September 27, 2025) tragedy.
However, after reading the case papers and finding that it was not a new case, but an impleading petition filed in a pending case, the judge cancelled the hearing since he had been allotted the criminal portfolio only for hearing fresh cases filed during the Dussehra vacation between September 27, 2025 and October 5, 2025.
N. Senthilkannan of Karur district had filed the petition to implead himself as one of the respondents in a pending case filed by the TVK, and issue consequential directions to the DGP. The impleading petitioner insisted the party should not be allowed to conduct any public gathering until effective safety protocols were put in place after a thorough inquiry.
Also read | Karur stampede: Crowd mismanagement, lack of amenities worsened the tragedy, say locals
The TVK had approached the High Court early this month complaining about “onerous” conditions being imposed by the Tamil Nadu police for the campaign being carried out by its president across the State. During the hearing of the case on September 18, Justice N. Sathish Kumar had taken serious note of the damage being caused to public as well as private properties during the public gatherings conducted by political parties.
The judge had impressed upon the need for the State to collect security deposits from all political parties, whenever they intend to hold public meetings or such other events, and use the money to compensate the loss caused to public/private properties by party cadres. He called for formulation of guidelines for the purpose of collecting security deposits.
However, on September 24, when an Assistant Inspector General of Policer serving in the office of the DGP/HoPF filed an affidavit stating there were no legal provisions to collect such security deposit to indemnify the loss to public/private property, the judge expressed displeasure and suo motu impleaded the Chief Secretary and the Home Secretary as parties to the case for taking a policy decision by October 16.
It was in this case that an impleading petition was filed on Sunday (September 28, 2025).
