The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to entertain an intervention application filed by the Opposition DMK to restrain Tamil Nadu chief minister Joseph Vijay and his cabinet ministers from interacting with victims of the Karur stampede or their families.

A bench of Justices K.V. Viswanathan and Alok Aradhe asked senior lawyer Ranjit Kumar, appearing for petitioner and DMK organising secretary R.S. Bharathi, how the top court could regulate the itinerary of the chief minister or his ministers.

Moreover, the bench said, Vijay was not an accused in the case.

“You want the chief minister’s message and his itinerary to be regulated by the Supreme Court?” the bench asked.

Kumar said the DMK was seeking to restrain comments being made by the chief minister and other state ministers regarding the merits of the case till the completion of the CBI investigation.

When the bench said it would amount to “an injunction on free speech”, the senior counsel said free speech could be subjected to reasonable restrictions.

However, sensing the court’s mood, the counsel sought permission to withdraw the petition, which was treated as “dismissed as withdrawn”.

Forty-one people were killed and 142 injured in a stampede at an election rally by TVK chief Vijay on September 27 last year. Police had said the rally saw a turnout of around 27,000 people — nearly three times the expected number — and blamed the tragedy on a seven-hour delay by Vijay in reaching the venue.

The top court had ordered a CBI probe into the incident on October 13 last year.

Quoting media reports, Bharathi’s petition had submitted that Vijay is likely to travel to Karur on or around July 10 to meet the families of the deceased and injured victims of the stampede and hand out compassionate appointments and
other benefits.

The plea contended that direct interaction with material witnesses by people connected with the subject matter of the investigation, or by the political executive while distributing benefits arising out of the very incident under investigation, could create an apprehension about the fairness and independence of the investigative process.

Case call

Later in the day, the DMK approached the supervisory committee headed by Justice (retd) Ajay Rastogi and the CBI seeking appropriate steps to register a case against minister Aadhav Arjuna.

Bharathi sought appropriate direction to the CBI to register a case on a public speech made on July 2 by Arjuna, an accused in the Karur stampede, in which the minister allegedly tried to influence witnesses.