The Tamil Nadu government has filed an appeal in the Supreme Court against a Madras High Court order quashing compassionate government jobs given to families of Karur stampede victims, days after CM Vijay personally handed over the appointments.
The Tamil Nadu government has filed a Special Leave Petition in the Supreme Court challenging a Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court order that quashed the government's decision to grant compassionate government jobs to the families of the 41 people who died in the September 2025 Karur stampede. State Law Minister C.T.R. Nirmal Kumar confirmed the appeal, filed within days of the High Court's ruling.
A Division Bench of Justices C.V. Karthikeyan and R. Sakthivel ruled on July 27 that the government orders granting compassionate appointments to the victims' families violated Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution, which guarantee equality before law and equal opportunity in public employment. The Court held that while the tragedy deserved sympathy and support, compassionate appointments are governed by established Supreme Court guidelines and are ordinarily reserved for dependants of government employees who die while in service — a category the Court found did not extend to victims of a public rally tragedy. The ruling came in a public interest litigation, with the Court cautioning that permitting such appointments risked "opening the floodgates" for similar claims.
The jobs at the centre of the case were personally handed over by CM Vijay to 31 family members during his first visit to Karur on July 10, as part of a broader relief package that included financial assistance following the September 27, 2025 stampede at a TVK rally that claimed 41 lives. The High Court had earlier, on July 10, allowed the government to issue the appointments on a temporary basis, on condition the matter be resolved before beneficiaries received their first salary. A CBI investigation into the stampede itself remains ongoing, with separate proceedings also pending before the Supreme Court. A caveat petition has since been filed on behalf of a party functionary in connection with the government's appeal, ensuring that party will be heard before any order is passed.
Karur Stampede Supreme Court Compassionate Appointments CM Vijay July 30, 2026