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The Supreme Court on Friday, August 14, stayed the Madras High Court’s order quashing the Tamil Nadu government’s decision to provide government jobs to the family members of the 41 people killed in the September 2025 Karur stampede.
The bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and K Vinod Chandran passed the interim order while hearing a petition filed by the Tamil Nadu government challenging the High Court. Senior advocates Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Mukul Rohatgi, assisted by advocate Vrinda Bhandari, appeared for the Tamil Nadu government.
“Issue notice. Judgment passed by the High Court shall remain stayed,” the Bench was quoted as saying.
The Supreme Court questioned the objection to the government's decision to provide employment to the families of those who died in the tragedy.
“A stampede took place, something very unfortunate happened, some hundreds of people died. Now if the government decided that the family members should be provided with some succour, and suppose they would have decided to compensate them with money, would you have objected? Who are you to question the policy of the government, saying no employment should be given. Suppose if the sole earning member has died in the stampede and there is nobody else in the family who is earning, shouldn't the government give some employment to son or daughter or wife as per their educational [qualifications]", Live Law quoted Justice Pardiwala as saying.
During the hearing, Singhvi argued that the state had the power under Article 162 of the Constitution to frame a policy providing compassionate appointments in such circumstances. He also questioned whether a public interest litigation challenging the policy could be maintained when there was no challenge to the government's circular itself.
According to the report, advocate Velan appeared for a political party opposed to the appointments, arguing that compassionate employment could not be left to the discretion of the state. He also raised concerns over a possible conflict of interest, saying that the party (TVK) allegedly responsible for the stampede was now in power in Tamil Nadu.
The intervention prompted the bench to question the lawyer's role in the matter.
“What is the role of a political party here?” Justice Pardiwala asked, while Justice Chandran said, “Don't bring politics here.”
On July 27, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court had quashed the Tamil Nadu government's order providing jobs to the families of the 41 victims of the Karur stampede.
A Division Bench of Justices CV Karthikeyan and R Sakthivel held that the appointments could not be sustained as public employment has to comply with Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution, which guarantee equality before law and equality of opportunity in public employment.
The High Court noted that compassionate appointments are ordinarily intended for dependents of government employees who die while in service. It observed that several such families were already waiting for appointments and that the state could not overlook their claims to provide jobs to the families of the Karur stampede victims.
They warned that allowing such appointments could open the "floodgates" for similar demands following other tragedies. It cited incidents such as firecracker and road accidents where victims' families had received ex gratia compensation but not government employment.
The 41 deaths occurred in a stampede at a TVK event in Karur in September 2025. The incident is currently being investigated by the CBI.
After TVK, led by Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay, came to power following the April 2026 Tamil Nadu Assembly elections, the state government decided to provide government employment to eligible family members of the victims.
