What happened
The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court invalidated Tamil Nadu government orders that granted government jobs to family members of victims of the Karur stampede. The High Court allowed public interest litigation challenging the State’s decision and held that the appointment orders were subject to judicial review.
The Karur stampede occurred in September of the previous year during a roadshow by Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam ahead of the 2026 Assembly election. The roadshow involved Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay, who is also the party president.
Tamil Nadu government defended the job grants as compassionate appointments and said the State acted according to specific guidelines while exercising executive power.
The Madurai Bench rejected the defence. The Court said that public interest and fairness cannot be overridden by incident-linked compassionate job grants when constitutional equality rules apply, and stressed that compassionate employment is governed by departmental seniority and waitlists rather than immediate relief to selected families.
The High Court held that the appointment orders violated constitutional principles under Articles 14 and 16. The Court also clarified that executive power under Article 162 cannot be used to breach constitutional limits, and warned that bypassing equality-based appointment principles could lead to similar claims from other hardship-linked incident categories.
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