Chennai: Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) has moved Madras high court challenging the SOP framed by the Tamil Nadu govt to regulate public meetings, rallies, and road shows in the state.The primary contention of TVK is that the SOP grants priority to parties recognised by Election Commission of India, excluding registered parties. The registered political parties, though lawfully entitled to function, are placed at a clear disadvantage, it said.The plea filed in the high court is likely to be taken up for hearing in the first week of Feb by the first bench headed by the Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava.Claiming that political rallies and campaigns are protected speech and assembly, TVK argues that the restrictions imposed are excessive, vague, and disproportionate. Shifting core state functions such as law and order, policing, fire services, and traffic control to organisers cannot be justified, it says.“The SOP mandates rigid numerical requirements for ambulances, medical teams, volunteers, barricading, CCTV, fire safety, and crowd timing. Advance restrictions on public assembly beyond reasonable control of organisers will result in potential denial of permission for non-compliance with impracticable conditions, thereby transforming regulation into suppression of political activity,” the party said.The SOP fastens blanket liability for stampedes, damage to public property, and crowd behaviour outside notified venues, without requiring proof of direct, proximate, or wilful negligence on the part of the organisers. Such strict liability is unknown to constitutional regulation of political assemblies, it added.
