Government jobs for Karur stampede victims’ kin temporary, subject to judicial review: Madras HC

CHENNAI: Even as it allowed the State government to issue appointment orders to the families of the Karur stampede victims, the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court on Friday (July 10) held that the appointments would be temporary and subject to judicial review.

It would not be appropriate for the court to interfere with a policy decision of the government, said the bench of Justice CV Karthikeyan and Justice R Sakthivel, and allowed the public function to hand over appointment letters.

However, the bench said the appointments would be temporary and subject to judicial review, and added that the petition would be heard before the end of this month, before the appointees receive their first salary.

The bench also suo motu impleaded the Member-Secretary of the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission and directed him to file a report on the guidelines for compassionate appointments and whether they were followed in the present case.

The petitioner, Theeran Thirumurugan, a lawyer from Madurai, challenged the decision of the government headed by Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay to provide government jobs to the families of 41 persons who died in the stampede when attending Vijay’s rally in Karur in September.

The petitioner sought directions to the Chief Secretary, Additional Chief Secretary, secretaries of Personnel and Administrative Reforms, Home, and Revenue and Disaster Management departments, and the Karur district Collector to refrain from issuing or implementing any appointment order until the proceedings before the Supreme Court attain finality.

He contended that the absence of a clear policy and the pendency of the proceedings before the apex court could lead to irreversible legal and administrative consequences if appointment orders are issued before the matter reaches finality.

During the hearing, the State counsel referred to a precedent where government jobs were provided to the families of those who died in the Thoothukudi police firing.