Supreme Court to pronounce its order on October 13 on pleas for independent probe into Karur stampede

New Delhi: The Supreme Court is scheduled to pronounce its order on Monday on a plea challenging the Madras High Court's order setting up an SIT to probe the Karur stampede, which claimed lives of 41 people and left scores others injured.

A bench of Justices J K Maheshwari and N V Anjaria would render the orders on October 13 on the petitions filed by Tamil actor Vijay's political party, Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK), and others.

Other petitions were filed by Paneerselvam Pitchaimuthu, S Prabhakaran, Selvaraj P and G S Mani, which also sought CBI probe into the matter.

The incident during the rally of actor turned politician Vijay, left 41 people dead and left over 100 others injured on September 27, 2025.

On October 10, while reserving its order, the court questioned the Madras High Court's order setting up the SIT led by senior IPS officer Asra Garg, to probe the Karur stampede.

The court flagged the High Court's two seemingly conflicting orders in connection with the matter, one declining plea for CBI probe, which was passed by the Madurai bench, and another directing a probe by a special investigation team (SIT), passed by the principal bench.

The court also wondered how observations and directions against petitioner TVK were made on a writ petition seeking formulation of Standard Operating Procedure(SOP) on road shows and political rallies.

“We are unable to understand how this order was passed,” the bench had said.

The court also asked why a plea before the high court for a SOP was entertained by the principal bench, when another petition on stampede was already rejected by the high court's Madurai bench.

The court noted the plea before the principal bench was only for formulation of SOP but the high court went beyond that prayer and ordered a probe by SIT.

The plea contended that despite making an observation, which questioned the independence of the police probe into the matter, the high court directed the constitution of an SIT composed solely of three senior officers from the Tamil Nadu Police.

TVK also contended that the party and its leaders were prejudiced by the order which appointed an SIT composed solely of officers of the state police, despite the high court expressing its discontent with the independence of state police and its conduct.

The plea claimed that a pre-planned conspiracy by certain miscreants to create trouble at the rally site cannot be ruled out as a cause of the stampede. It pressed for an independent probe.