New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday turned down Tamil Nadu government’s plea to modify its order suspending a one-man enquiry commission and the SIT to look into the Karur stampede in which 41 people were killed saying, “We want everything to be fair and impartial.”
A bench of justices JK Maheswari and Vijay Bishnoi also took a critical view of the report filed by registrar general of the Madras High Court saying, “There is something wrong going on in the high court. This is not a right thing that is happening in the high court.”
On October 13, the top court ordered a CBI probe into the Karur stampede, which occurred during a rally of actor-politician Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) on September 27, saying that the incident has shaken the national conscience and deserves a fair and impartial investigation.
In its order on a plea by TVK for an independent probe, the top court had set up a three-member supervisory committee headed by former apex court judge Ajay Rastogi to monitor the CBI investigation and suspended the directions for the appointment of SIT and a one-man enquiry commission.
It had also criticised Justice N Senthilkumar of the Madras High Court for entertaining petitions on the incident, ordering an SIT probe and making observations against TVK and its members without making them a party to the case.
On Friday, during the hearing senior advocate P Wilson, appearing for Tamil Nadu government submitted that the state’s commission will not interfere with the CBI probe and will confine itself to giving recommendations to prevent such incidents.
The bench told Wilson to read the notification appointing commission and said, “We want everything to be fair and impartial”.
The bench did not issue notice on the plea or vacated its interim order of October 13. Justice Maheshwari said the registrar general of the high court has filed a report and observed, “There is something wrong going in the high court. This is not a right thing that is happening in the high court. We have seen the registrar general’s report. We will deal with it”.
The bench said it has perused the report sent by the registrar general of the high court on how a writ petition seeking SOP for rallies was registered as a criminal writ petition.
Wilson and senior advocate Siddharth Luthra, also appearing for the state, sought a copy of the registrar general’s report saying they would like to file a reply.