Madurai: The Madurai Bench of the High Court has issued an order cancelling the government order related to providing government jobs to the families of 31 people who died in the Karur stampede.
A government job was given on compassionate grounds to one member of the family of those who died after being caught in the stampede at the TVK rally in Karur. Against this, three people, including Naam Tamilar Katchi's Theeran Thirumurugan and Madurai-based lawyer Seeni Ahamed, filed a public interest petition in the Madurai Bench of the High Court.
In those petitions, “A CBI investigation into the Karur incident is being conducted under the direct supervision of the Supreme Court. This investigation is being monitored by a committee appointed by the Supreme Court. In this situation, providing a government job to one member of the family of those who died in the Karur incident would affect the investigation. This is an act that would disperse the witnesses to the Karur incident.
Government jobs should be provided only on the basis of competitive examinations and merit. Otherwise, if government jobs are given to the families of those who died in an incident, it will create a situation where those who die in similar incidents also demand government jobs.
People have died in various incidents in Tamil Nadu. Government jobs have not been provided to their family members. Therefore, providing government jobs to the families of those who died in the Karur incident would set a wrong precedent. Hence, an order should be issued restraining the provision of government jobs until the CBI investigation and the Supreme Court inquiry are completed,’ it was stated.
When the petitions had already come up for hearing, the judges had ordered that only temporary jobs should be given to the family members of those who died in the Karur incident. They had also ordered that these jobs would be subject to the final verdict in this case.
In this situation, these petitions came up for hearing today (July 27) before the bench of Judges Karthikeyan and Sakthivel.
At that time, the government side said, “The stampede in Karur happened because the police did not handle the situation properly. The 41 people who died were not at fault either. Providing government jobs to their families was a policy decision of the government. The court cannot interfere in that.
The government has acted in the matter of providing government jobs in accordance with the Constitution. In the Sterlite and Madurai councillor Leelavathi murder cases, jobs have been provided on compassionate grounds to the affected persons.
Since compassionate appointments were made by following the rules, they have to be cancelled. These petitions have been filed out of political malice. The petitions should be dismissed,” it was said.
On the petitioners’ side, it was stated, “Government jobs have been provided to 31 members from the families of those who died in the Karur incident. The government has said that the appointments were given on compassionate grounds. When providing compassionate appointments, it must be in accordance with the Constitution.
The Supreme Court has issued various guidelines regarding compassionate appointments. These must be followed when granting compassionate appointments. These guidelines were not followed. Therefore, the government appointments should be cancelled,” it was said.
Later, the judges said, “The Supreme Court has issued various guidelines regarding the granting of compassionate appointments. These guidelines were not followed in providing government jobs to those affected in the Karur stampede.
The government can, if it wishes, provide skill training to those who died in the Karur incident and try to improve their livelihood. The claim that only ordinary jobs were given to the affected families cannot be accepted. Therefore, the government order issued to provide government jobs to the families of those who died after being caught in the Karur crowd crush is cancelled,” they ordered.
