CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Tuesday said that the standard operating procedure (SOP) being prepared by the Tamil Nadu government shall be for regulating public events of political parties in order to prevent incidents like the September 27 Karur stampede during TVK leader Vijay’s roadshow and not aimed at restricting such events.
The first bench of Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice G Arul Murugan also emphasised that the SOP shall be applicable to all political parties across the board and there shouldn’t be any partiality.
“There shouldn’t be unnecessary conditions to restrict but only regulate the public events held by political parties,” the bench said while hearing a batch of petitions, including the one filed by TVK, regarding the conditions and framing guidelines for granting permission for rallies and roadshows.
The bench granted time till November 20 for the state government to submit the final draft of the SOP and adjourned the hearing to November 21.
Stating that the state has pre-existing guidelines for dealing with political rallies and roadshows, the bench said it wants some modifications in these guidelines so as to prevent Karur stampede-like situations in the future.
It also stressed the need for setting a proper time frame for submission of applications for permission to hold public events and for processing such applications well ahead of the events.
Additional Advocate General J Ravindran, representing the state, submitted that the government convened a meeting of all recognised political parties on November 6 to discuss the draft SOP and invited suggestions and objections from them. Several parties have submitted suggestions and a few others are yet to do so. After receiving the suggestions and objections, the authorities concerned will consider them before giving shape to the final draft SOP, he told the court.
When advocates Arivalagan and A P Suryaprakasam, appearing for TVK and Desiya Makkal Sakthi Katchi respectively, complained of not being invited for the meeting, the AAG said since these two parties were not recognised by Election Committee of India they were not invited. However, they were sent copies of the draft through e-mail since they are registered parties, he added.
Asking the parties to submit their response by Tuesday, the bench directed the state government to consider their submissions too.
Senior counsel Vijay Narayan, appearing for AIADMK which has impleaded in the case, wanted the court to ensure the SOP was implemented without any bias.