The Madras High Court on Friday allowed the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK)-led Tamil Nadu government to proceed with issuing government job appointment letters to the families of those who died in the Karur stampede. However, the court made it clear that the appointments would be temporary and remain subject to judicial review until a final decision is taken in the pending case.
A Division Bench of Justices CV Karthikeyan and R Sakthivel permitted the government to continue with the scheduled appointment process while hearing a petition challenging the state's decision to grant compassionate government jobs to the victims' families.
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The Bench observed that it would be inappropriate to abruptly halt a policy decision of the government at this stage and allowed the public function for issuing appointment letters to proceed, reported Live Law.
The court directed that the appointments should not create any permanent or vested rights. While the appointees will receive salaries, their employment will remain temporary and subject to the final outcome of the writ petition. The Bench also indicated that it intends to hear and decide the matter before the end of July, preferably before the newly appointed employees receive their first month's salary.
The petition, filed by Madurai-based lawyer Theeran Thirumurugan, argued that granting government jobs exclusively to the families of Karur stampede victims violates Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution, as the state has no uniform policy governing such appointments. The petitioner contended that selectively offering public employment in tragedy cases could breach the principles of equality and equal opportunity.
In response, the State Counsel informed the court that a previous application challenging the distribution of government jobs had been filed in the Supreme Court under a separate, pending case. However, that specific petition was ultimately withdrawn, as per the report.
To justify the current appointments, the counsel also cited a legal precedent, pointing out that the government had previously granted jobs to the families of victims from the Thoothukudi police firing incident.
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