In a major setback for the C. Joseph Vijay-led government in Tamil Nadu, the Madras High Court on Monday barred the state from granting government jobs to the families of those killed in the Karur stampede.
The court had been hearing a series of public interest litigations (PILs) challenging the state government order, but said that it would refrain from making any observations on the merits of the case, since it was being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) under monitoring from the Supreme Court.
The court also made a crucial distinction: that the TVK government was only allowed to go forward with the protests if the appointments remained temporary, which meant that the court could pass a ruling on their jobs before they received their first salaries.
Noting that it had struck down the government order that approved the appointments based on this condition, the court added that allowing such appointments on compassionate grounds would open the "floodgates" for similar claims in the future, as per an ANI report.
More specifically, it ruled that the government order for the families of the Karur stampede victims had violated Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution, which guarantee equality before the law and equal opportunity in public employment.
At least 41 people were killed in the Karur district during a September 2025 rally by Vijay and his TVK, which saw a surge in the number of people who had gathered to watch the actor-politician lead the rally.
Notably, about 27,000-50,000 people had gathered for the rally in the sweltering heat, despite permission reportedly being granted for only 10,000 people.
The colossal crowd surge escalated when Vijay arrived late at the rally site, which turned into a stampede.
The tragedy led to allegations of improper crowd control at the rally site by TVK organisers, in addition to a purposeful delay of Vijay's arrival to reportedly maximise the impact of the rally.
“More than anything else, the pain that affected me the most is the Karur incident," he said at a public meeting with the families of the victims, in which he had promised them government jobs.
