CHENNAI: Chief Justice of the Madras High Court Manindra Mohan Shrivastava on Friday said a special bench would be constituted to hear all the petitions relating to the September 27 Karur stampede.
When a petition filed by Madurai-based advocate C Selvakumar — seeking directions to include the name of TVK chief Vijay in the FIR registered by the Karur police, derecognise his party by the Election Commission of India (ECI) and frame standard operating procedures (SOP) for regulating roadshows of political parties — came up for hearing, the chief justice said the prayer for alteration of FIR was dealt with by the order of the Supreme Court handing over the probe to CBI.
Other prayers in the petition would be dealt with by the high court and a special bench would be constituted to hear all the petitions relating to the Karur stampede, he said.
Referring to the prayer for derecognising the TVK, counsel for the ECI submitted that the party is not a recognised party.
The petitioner alleged that actor Vijay and his party were responsible for the loss of lives in the Karur roadshow and the police had not registered the FIR under grave penal sections. They purposefully incorporated mild penal provisions, thereby giving room for the accused persons to easily escape the clutches of law.
He wanted the court to direct the Karur police to alter the FIR by incorporating section 304 A, 336, 337, 338 of IPC, 75, 83 of the Juvenile Justice Act, 3 of Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act against Vijay and the organisers of the roadshow, and to direct the party to pay Rs 1 crore compensation to each of the families of the deceased.
Stating that children were engaged for the roadshow of Vijay, the petitioner sought the court to issue directions to the Election Commission to derecognise the party. He sought fixing liability upon the leadership of the TVK “for mobilising minor children and women unlawfully”, resulting in mass casualty.
