Madras High Court strikes down Tamil Nadu’s compassionate jobs for Karur stampede families

5 min readChennaiUpdated: Jul 27, 2026 06:20 PM IST In the Karur incident, the judges said, no comparable basis existed to justify departing from the constitutional principles governing public recruitment. (Express File photo) The Madras High Court on Monday struck down the Tamil Nadu government’s decision to provide government jobs to the families of those killed in last year’s Karur stampede, ruling that the measure violated the Constitution’s guarantee of equality in public employment and warning that executive compassion cannot override constitutional safeguards. A Division Bench comprising Justices C V Karthikeyan and R Sakthivel held that the state’s Government Order granting appointments to the families of the 41 victims was contrary to Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution, which