Chennai: The Madras High Court on Monday directed the Tamil Nadu Government to prepare within 10 days a Draft Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for holding political meetings and rallies to avoid tragedies like the recent stampede in Karur at actor-politician Vijay’s rally in which 41 persons died. The actor, incidentally, facilitated the travel of the families of the victims from Karur to Chennai and met them at a luxury convention hall in the tourist town of Mamallapuram to offer condolences a month after the stampede.
A Bench of Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice G Arul Murugan directed the Additonal Advocate General J Ravindran to place the Draft SOP before the court by November 11. If the State does not comply with this, the court said it would be constrained to pass an order mandating that applications seeking permission for political meets must be made 10 days before the event and the police must dispose them at least three days in advance.
The Bench gave the interim direction on a petition filed by Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam, before the Karur stampede, alleging the police was imposing onerous conditions on its for its rallies. Several other individuals had also filed petitions seeking the framing of SOP to regulate political meetings.
