Tamil Nadu chief minister C Joseph Vijay
New Delhi: Supreme Court Tuesday dismissed a plea by DMK seeking an order restraining Tamil Nadu CM Joseph Vijay from making statements on the Karur stampede and told the party not to use the judicial forum as a political platform to proceed against an adversary. It also asked how a court could tell the elected head of a state what to say.At the outset of the hearing, a bench of Justices K V Viswanathan and Alok Aradhe expressed reservations on entertaining the plea against the CM and other state ministers. “You want the CM’s message to be regulated by SC and fix his itinerary?” the bench said.Senior advocate Ranjit Kumar, appearing for the petitioner, said TVK ministers were making public statements that were creating a “narrative” on the stampede case. He said compensation was being paid to the victims’ families and they were also being given compassionate appointm-ents, hinting that these may influence those who were witnesses. The bench asked how these could affect the investigation.”So you want us to impose an injunction on free speech? You counter their speech with your speech. How does SC, in a matter where it ordered a CBI investigation, allow the impleadment of a political rival?” it said. Kumar referred to SC’s order in the Arvind Kejriwal case, where the then Delhi CM was asked not to make statements, and pleaded that a similar order be passed ag-ainst the TN CM. The bench pointed out the latter was not an accused in the case.When Kumar said Vijay was accused number one, the court asked him to verify the facts as the CM had not been named in the first FIR lodged during DMK govt’s tenure. Senior advocate Neeraj Kishan Kaul, appearing for the respondents, affirmed that Vijay was not an accused.The petitioner then sought the court’s permission to withdraw the plea.
