Rohit Kumar
NEW DELHI, July 27: In a major setback to the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) and the Tamil Nadu chief minister C Joseph Vijay, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Monday struck down Vijay-led ministry’s order granting government jobs to the family members of the Karur stampede victims saying it violated the Article 14 (Right to Equality) and the Article 16 (Equality of Opportunity in Government Employment) of the Constitution.
A Division Bench of Justices CV Karthikeyan and R. Sakthivel allowed a batch of public interest litigation (PIL) petitions, which had challenged the Vijay government’s order, and observed that the move would open “floodgates” for others to seek such employment.
Forty-one people, including children, were killed in the stampede at a TVK rally addressed by Vijay in September last year, when the DMK was in power. The police had alleged that Vijay’s delayed arrival led to crowds swelling beyond the permitted capacity and cited several lapses, including inadequate drinking water, food and toilet facilities. The TVK rejected the allegations, blaming police failure and alleging a conspiracy by former DMK minister Senthil Balaji, a charge he has denied.
The court had earlier permitted the Vijay government to conduct an event in Karur this month to distribute the appointment orders to the family members of the Karur stampede victims while making it clear that the employment offers would be purely on temporary basis subject to judicial review.
Accordingly the Chief Minister handed over compassionate appointment orders to 32 legal heirs of the victims who lost their lives in the stampede earlier this month. The compassionate appointments form part of the state government’s relief and rehabilitation measures aimed at providing financial security to the bereaved families.
The court in its Monday’s order said many other people were looking for employment in other governmental departments, and giving jobs to the kin of the Karur stampede victims and ignoring others would be inappropriate.
“This is all the more relevant to not just everyone seeking employment but also those standing in the waiting list and who have lost their family in harness.
“When there is a waiting list, it is not appropriate to overlook their needs and extend what is termed as succour to family members of the Karur incident…We hold that these appointments are in direct violation of the guarantee to a citizen of this country under Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution,” the court said.
The bench also noted that the state’s reasoning for passing such orders under Article 162 should be within the rigors of the Constitution. “Exercise of executive power must be within the constitutional limits. If executive action were to be left unfettered and given free hand, chaos will reign,” the court said.
It cited other incidents where families of victims were not given compassionate appointments despite loss of life, even though it could have been due to the state’s inaction. The Court stated that the state would need to give employment in such cases as well if the Karur stampede jobs were given. It added that the state should instead focus on helping the kin with training skills.
“We wonder why the govt could not have extended training in skills and entrepreneurship for deserving members of families. The govt would be creating leaders, entrepreneurs, self-sufficient individuals in each family who can later provide employment to others. The government can bear the expense of such technical courses,” the court said.
In October 2025, the Supreme Court had transferred the investigation into the Karur stampede incident from a state-level Special Investigation Team (SIT) to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), emphasizing the need for an independent and impartial probe. The investigation is examining several aspects of the rally, including crowd-management arrangements, the timeline of Vijay’s arrival and the coordination between party organizers and local authorities.
Senior AIADMK leader RB Udhayakumar had strongly criticized the Chief Minister over the move, calling it a “betrayal.” The move strikes at the livelihood of lakhs of young people from ordinary families who wait for years to secure government jobs, he had said.
The AIADMK leader alleged that temporary government jobs were given bypassing standard statutory procedures. He emphasized that all government recruitments in Tamil Nadu must be conducted strictly through the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC). “Offering government jobs as compensation by flouting rules for political reasons is a wrong approach,” Udhayakumar had said, adding that this sets a shocking and wrong precedent for the state’s youth.
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