It says damage caused to private/public properties will be recovered by District Collectors apart from initiation of criminal prosecution

The Tamil Nadu government on Friday informed the Madras High Court of having decided to penalise political parties and other organisers if they violate conditions imposed by the police while permitting the conduct of public meetings, processions, roadshows, demonstrations, protests, cultural/religious events, and other public gathering, which are attended by over 5,000 people.

In a draft Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) submitted before the first Division Bench of Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice G. Arul Murugan, Home Secretary Dheeraj Kumar said the Collector concerned would initiate proceedings to recover damage caused to public/private properties based on post-event reports to be submitted by the police. The action under the Tamil Nadu Property (Prevention of Damage and Loss) Act of 1992 would be in addition to criminal prosecution, he said. After ordering copies of the draft SOP to be shared with senior counsel N.L. Rajah, representing Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam, advocate A.P. Suryaprakasam representing Desiya Makkal Sakthi Katchi, and others, the judges decided to hear the case next on November 27.

The draft SOP stated it would not apply to religious gatherings organised at places of worship as customary events or where the venue/route had already been fixed by established customary precedents. Its applicability would be limited during the period of elections, when the model code of conduct would be in force, and all applications would have to be processed only through Suvidha portal of the Election Commission (EC). However, the responsibilities of the organisers with respect to crowd safety regulations and provision of essential amenities, such as drinking water and sanitation and related facilities, will continue to apply during elections too, it clarified. The Secretary stated that the SOP would not be applicable to gatherings with less than 5,000 participants and that such events would be governed by existing procedures.

Designating venues

In so far as the gatherings with over 5,000 participants were concerned, the draft SOP stated that every Collector should notify designated places to be used for public meetings, processions, etc., Such designation will be done in consultation with the Police Department and after receiving inputs from political parties recognised by the EC. The Greater Chennai Commissioner of Police would designate the places within his/her territorial jurisdiction. Every designated site will have to be inspected by Public Works Department engineers to determine its maximum crowd handling capacity, and the list of the sites will be reviewed periodically. If organisers wish to conduct an event in other larger sites, those sites should also be certified by PWD engineers.

The draft SOP prescribed the formats for making applications seeking permission for events and said these should be submitted 10 days prior to the proposed date of the event, but not before 15 days, if it was scheduled at a designated venue. In the case of events with an undesignated venue, the application must be made 15 days in advance, but not before 21 days.

The applications could, however, be made 30 days in advance for major events such as party conferences to be attended by over 50,000 people. The organisers must submit written undertakings accepting full responsibility for crowd safety, regulation, and management.

Volunteers and police

The organisers must depute one volunteer for every 100 participants and such volunteers must be wearing identifiable t-shirts, badges, and identity cards .The volunteers to be deputed by the event organisers must work in coordination with the police, who will be deputed in the ratio of one policeman/woman for every 200 participants for low-risk events, one for every 100 participants for events with moderate risk, and one for every 50 participants in high-risk events.

The draft SOP also insisted that the organisers must instal sufficient number of closed-circuit television cameras in the event area/route and provide access to the footage to the police on a real time basis.