Court nod for govt jobs to families of Karur stampede victims. But with conditions

Chennai,UPDATED: Jul 10, 2026 12:01 IST

The Madras High Court on Friday allowed the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK)-led Tamil Nadu government to issue government job appointments to the families of those killed in the Karur stampede last year, but ruled that the appointments would remain temporary and subject to the outcome of judicial review.

A Division Bench of Justices CV Karthikeyan and R Sakthivel of the Madurai Bench said it would be "extremely narrow" for the court to interfere with a policy decision of the government.

The bench, therefore, permitted the state to go ahead with a public function scheduled for Friday afternoon to hand over appointment letters to the families of the deceased.

"It would be extremely narrow for the court to interfere with a policy decision of the government. The state shall thus proceed with the function on the condition that employment would be on a temporary basis, subject to judicial review. We intend to hear the matter by the end of this month, before the prospective appointees receive their first salary," the Bench observed according to a report in Live Law.

The court also added the Member Secretary of the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission as a party in the case on its own and asked him to submit a report on the rules for compassionate appointments and whether those rules were followed in this case.

The observations came while hearing a petition filed by Madurai-based lawyer Theeran Thirumurugan, who challenged the TVK government's decision to provide government jobs to the families of the 41 people who died in the Karur stampede in September last year.

The petitioner sought directions restraining the state government from issuing or implementing appointment orders until proceedings related to the tragedy pending before the Supreme Court are concluded.

He argued that there is no uniform policy for granting permanent government employment to families of victims in such tragedies and contended that offering jobs in one case could violate the constitutional principles of equality and equal opportunity under Articles 14 and 16.

The petition further argued that every eligible citizen has a constitutional right to compete for public employment and that, in the absence of a clearly defined policy governing such appointments, the government's decision was arbitrary and unconstitutional.

The petitioner also submitted that, since matters relating to the Karur tragedy are pending before the Supreme Court, granting irreversible administrative benefits at this stage could lead to avoidable legal and administrative complications.

During the hearing, the petitioner maintained that the proposed appointments were contrary to the existing rules governing compassionate appointments, which are required to be followed strictly.

In response, the state government informed the court that an intervention application filed before the Supreme Court had earlier challenged the proposed appointments but was subsequently withdrawn.

The state also cited the precedent of government jobs being provided to the families of victims of the Thoothukudi police firing.

The Bench, however, distinguished the two cases, observing that the Thoothukudi incident involved alleged excesses by the State, whereas the Karur stampede could not be categorised in the same manner.

The Karur stampede in September 2025 claimed 41 lives, following which the state government announced financial assistance and government jobs for the victims' families. The legality of those appointments remains under judicial scrutiny.

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