Madras High Court Declines Plea To Stall Anirudh Ravichander's Hukum World Tour Concert In Chennai

The Madras High Court, on Friday, refused to halt musician Anirudh Ravichander's “Hukum World Tour Concert", scheduled to be held at ECR, Chennai, on Saturday. 

Though Justice Anand Venkatesh refused to halt the concert, the court decided to keep the matter pending to ensure that no conditions imposed for conducting the concert were violated. The court also suggested that designated places could be identified in the city to conduct such events, as was done in some foreign countries. The court added that it wanted to ensure no mishap took place and, if needed, issue necessary directions for the future. 

The court was dealing with a petition filed by Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) party's MLA Babu, who had approached the court asking the State and the police not to grant permission for the concert. Babu submitted that, following written representations from Village Presidents, public representatives, and the general public, he had inspected the venue at which the concert was to be held. He submitted that there were no visible safety or amenity arrangements at the venue, and neither were sanitation facilities set up to cater to the crowd.

Babu further submitted that fire safety measures were glaringly absent, with no fire extinguishers, water tanks or fire tenders. He also added that emergency evacuation plans or exit points were not marked. 

Babu also pointed out that the approach road to the concert venue was a narrow 30-foot rural road, which was not adequate to handle the vehicular traffic and crowd flow. He also added that the narrow road itself would become a choke point during the concert. Babu alleged that proper permission had not been obtained from the fire service, the electricity department, the public health department, etc, and it appeared that the police had given permission without considering all factors. 

Pointing to the chaos that had ensued after AR Rahman's "Marakkuma Nenjam" concert, Babu submitted that a similar situation would arise in the present case if not dealt with properly. 

The Additional Public Prosecutor informed the court that the police had imposed necessary conditions for the conduct of the concert. 

Noting the same, the court said that it would not halt the concert to be conducted tomorrow but would keep the matter pending to see if the conditions were duly followed and to ensure that no mishap occurs. 

Case Title: Babu v The State