Senthil Kumar
A judgment of a single judge of the Madras High Court, Justice N.Senthil Kumar, passed on 3.10.2025 in Writ Petition Crl. No. 1000 of 2025 and WPMP Crl. No. 475 of 2025 regarding the stampede in Karur in Tamilnadu on 27.9.2025 in which 41 people were allegedly killed and over 100 injured, is surprising
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Karur_crowd_crush
https://justicekatju.com/something-is-rotten-in-the-state-of-tamilnadu-22aac0e5278e
The facts of the case were that a political rally was organized on 27.9.2025 in Karur by the TVK party to be addressed by its leader Vijay, and in this rally a stampede occurred, as mentioned above. Consequently, the abovementioned writ petition was filed by one PH Dinesh with a prayer to consider his representation dated 30.9.2025 for framing of an SOP ( Standard Operation Procedure ) for conducting roadshows.
In his judgment dated 3.10.2025 the learned single judge made scathing observations against the TVK and its leader Vijay, though they were not even parties in the case.
Thus, he observed ( in para 11 of his judgment ) :
” Shockingly, the programme organisers, including the leader of the political party, absconded from the venue, abandoning their own cadres, followers, and fans. There is neither remorse, nor responsibility, nor even an expression of regret ”.
He further observed ( in paras 16 and 17 ) :
” 6.This Court strongly condemns the conduct of Mr.Vijay, the organisers of the event and the members of the political party for fleeing from the scene of occurrence immediately after mishaps. While this Court is aware that the political party has not been arrayed as a respondent, it is important to point out that it is incumbent upon such a party to have taken immediate steps to rescue and assist individuals caught in the stampede like situation arising from the massive crowd in which many children, women, and several young person tragically lost their lives.
Regrettably, there has been no statement, no expression of responsibility from the political party viz., Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam regarding the occurrence, either in their official twitter account or in other social media regretting the stampede that has taken place. There is no communication in any form or in any manner regretting the incident. This omission reflects the political party’s disregard for human life and public accountability ”.
I am not going into the merits of the case and into the question who was responsible for the unfortunate tragedy, as the matter is sub judice in appeal before the Hon’ble Supreme Court, which by its order dated 13.10.2025 has ordered a probe into the incident by the CBI, to be monitored by a committee of a retired Supreme Court Judge and two senior police officers.
However, a perusal of the interim order of the Supreme Court dated 13.10.2025 shows that the Court has made some highly critical and trenchant remarks against the judgment of the learned single judge of the Madras High Court.
The Court has observed
(1) Neither Vijay nor the TVK were parties in the case before the single judge, thus denying them a hearing
(2) The petition before the single judge was only for framing an SOP, but he suo motu enlarged the scope of the petition
(3)The single judge should have dismissed the petition, as a petition praying for the same relief was pending in the Madurai Bench of the High Court
(4) The direction of the single judge to constitute an SIT prima facie indicated a lack of sensitivity and propriety to deal with a matter creating multiplicity of proceedings, for reasons best known to the learned single Judge.
To my mind, the very first ground mentioned above was sufficient to vitiate the judgment of the learned single judge. The rules of natural justice require that a party be heard before an order or observation is made against him by a court. As noted above, neither Vijay nor the TVK were parties in the case. How then could such scathing observations be made against them ?
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It is surprising that the learned single judge entertained the writ petition in Chennai, when Karur falls under the jurisdiction of the Madurai Bench of the High Court, where in fact petitions relating to the same incident were pending before a Division Bench.
It is reported that Justice Senthil Kumar’s mother had been a DMK MLA from 2006-2011, and she had been working actively for the DMK even thereafter as a District Gen Secy of the party. If these allegations are correct, apprehensions of bias can arise, but I do not propose to delve into this issue
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