The Karnataka Crowd Control (Managing Crowd At Events And Places of Gathering) Bill, 2025, was Thursday referred to a House Committee by the state government, bowing to demands by the Opposition seeking a closer scrutiny of the legislation due to its widespread ramifications.
The Bill, which was tabled on Wednesday evening, was taken up for discussion during the first half of Thursday’s proceedings. This came in the wake of the stampede that killed 11 people in Bengaluru during the victory celebrations of the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) cricket team following its maiden Indian Premier League (IPL) title win.
“When such unfortunate incidents occur, it is not defined (legally) who should bear responsibility. Is it the police, the organisers or someone else?” Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara said, noting that the Bill clarified who will be held accountable for such accidents.
Permission for events will be granted depending on the size of the crowd. For a crowd of less than 7,000, the local police can grant permission; for a crowd between 7,000 and 50,000, permission will be from DySP at the district level and ACPs at cities; and for a crowd of more than 50,000, the jurisdictional SP or Commissioner can grant permission, as per the Bill.
While senior BJP legislator S Suresh Kumar called the proposed legislation an “afterthought” or a “post-mortem Bill” following the stampede, Leader of Opposition R Ashoka asked whether the Bill was just to file an affidavit in the Karnataka High Court, where the Bengaluru stampede case is being heard.
“The government should make a distinction between commercial and non-commercial events,” he said, as implementing the law for all events would allow some officials to target activists by abusing the legislation.
MLA Basangouda Patil Yatnal described the legislation as ‘regressive’, and on par with British laws used to stifle dissent. “People fighting for public causes will suffer from this,” he said, objecting to the provisions that required prior permission from authorities depending on crowd size. “For farmers’ movements and others, one cannot estimate the number of people that can gather,” he argued.
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BJP MLA Sunil Kumar said that for gatherings below 25,000 people, the government should relax the number of days before which they should seek permission. There are also instances when close to 5,000 people respond to a protest call. “Such gatherings will be punished as per this law. The government should address such concerns,” he said.
A few legislators also sought that the state government exempt political events from the purview of the legislation, which was rejected by the Home Minister. The government has exempted fairs, mass marriages, government events and private programmes held within a boundary.
However, R Ashoka said that a House Committee should look into all these aspects before clearing the Bill with some strong provisions. Parameshwara agreed to the same.
The Bill says that the organisers of the event, where a crowd disaster results in death, will be liable for a minimum imprisonment of 10 years, which can be extended to life term. For injuries, organisers can be penalised with a jail term of three to seven years.