Overview

• The monitoring panel will include two IPS officers from the Tamil Nadu cadre who are not natives of the state, to be chosen by Justice Rastogi, with the CBI submitting monthly progress reports.
• The bench faulted the Madras High Court’s Chennai bench for constituting an SIT via a petition on rally SOPs despite Karur falling under the Madurai bench’s jurisdiction, and it sought a Registrar General report on the petition’s registration as a criminal writ.
• The order was issued as an interim, prima facie measure, and Tamil Nadu was granted time to file its counter affidavit.
• State counsel informed the court that some petitioners claiming to seek a CBI probe now allege petitions were filed without their knowledge, and the bench said it would consider the issue.
• The court noted 41 deaths from the September 27 rally crush and questioned the timing of post-mortems and early cremations, also asking why TVK’s rally was permitted when AIADMK was denied the same venue.