The Sureme Court bench also issued notice to MPs A Raja and Thol Thirumavalavan, as well as the Union Home Ministry.
Supreme Court has sought a response from Udhayanidhi Stalin on his comments about Sanatana Dharma.
Taking up a plea seeking an FIR against Tamil Nadu Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin over his 2 September remark calling for Sanatana Dharma to be “eradicated”, the Supreme Court on Friday, 22 September, issued notices seeking responses from the state government and the minister.
The bench also issued notices to MPs — the DMK’s A Raja and the VCK’s Tholkappiyan Thirumavalavan alias Thol Thirumavalavan — and the Union Home Ministry.
Besides this, the top court also issued notices to Tamil Nadu DGP Su Venkatesan, the Greater Chennai Police Commissioner, state Minister for Hindu Religious & Charitable Endowment Department PK Sekar Babu, Tamil Nadu State Minorities Commission Chairman Peter Alphonse, and others.
A bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Bela M Trivedi issued the notices on a plea filed by a lawyer B Jagannath who sought the registration of an FIR against the Tamil Nadu minister on the grounds that Udhayanidhi’s remarks were akin to hate speech and that the top court had, in similar matters in the past, had passed several directions, including registration of FIR.
Senior advocate Dama Seshadri Naidu, appearing for the petitioner, submitted that the minister allegedly asked school students to say that this religion is not good and that the other religion is good.
The petition also argued that the conference had a deliberate agenda to target Hinduism and propagate hatred by employing offensive and derogatory language.
“This court has taken note of similar matters where individuals make such a statement against another’s faith but in this case, it is a minister making the statement. Here it is a state, which is telling the school students that so and so religion is wrong,” Naidu said.
“They have called for the eradication of a faith, in an institution,” the advocate told the bench.
Stating that it is a case of the state unleashing its machinery, Naidu told the bench that circulars have been issued asking students to speak against Sanatan Dharma.
“A constitutional functionary speaking like this is impermissible. Second, students should not be forced to speak out against so and so dharma,” Naidu said.
The bench asked Naidu what was he seeking from the court, to which the senior lawyer said he was seeking a restraining order against the minister (Stalin) from making any such statement and secondly that an FIR be registered.
“We are also seeking that students should be kept out of this,” he said.
The bench was initially reluctant to entertain the plea directly in the Supreme Court as it asked the petitioner to instead approach the Madras High Court on the issue.
The bench said, “Although we are issuing notice, you are turning the Supreme Court into a police station by approaching it for registration of FIR. You should have gone to the high court.”
Naidu said they were compelled to approach the court as he was a minister and when they went to register an FIR, no one registered it.
DMK leader Udhayanidhi Stalin recently blamed Sanatana Dharma for promoting division and discrimination among people and said that it should be eradicated.
Speaking at a conference on “Abolition of Sanatana” in Chennai on 2 September, organised by the Tamil Nadu Progressive Writers and Artists Association, Udhayanidhi said, “Few things cannot be opposed, they should be abolished.”
He added, “We can’t oppose dengue, mosquitoes, malaria, or Corona. We have to eradicate them. In the same way, we have to eradicate Sanatana, rather than oppose it.”
He also said that the word Sanatanam was derived from Sanskrit, and that it was against equality and social justice, and that it had been a hindrance to society.
The Delhi Police received two complaints from two different sources against Udhayanidhi on 3 September.
In one case, right-wing outfit Hindu Sena filed a complaint, with its national president Vishnu Gupta stating that the Tamil Nadu minister had insulted Sanatana Dharma “under a well-thought-out strategy”.
A second complaint was lodged by Vineet Jindal, a practising lawyer.
In a video posted on X, he claimed that what Udhayanidhi had said amounted to hate speech, pointing out that Supreme Court guidelines say anyone delivering a hate speech should have an FIR lodged against them, even if there is no complaint.
A petition was filed before a court in Bihar on 4 September, against Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin and his son Udhayanidhi Stalin. The petitioner reportedly asked the court to take cognisance of the matter and order a probe against the father and son.
On 6 September, an FIR was filed in Rampur, Uttar Pradesh, against the DMK leader as well as Karnataka minister Priyank Kharge, for allegedly “inciting religious sentiment”.
Kharge was booked for backing Udhayanidhi Stalin’s remark.
Another FIR was registered against Tamil Nadu Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin in Maharashtra regarding his remarks on Sanatana Dharma. Mira Road police in Thane have registered an FIR against Udhayanidhi following a complaint, an official said on Wednesday, 13 September.
The complainant claimed that Udhayanidhi’s remarks have hurt the sentiments and religious feelings of those who follow the principles of Sanatana Dharma, as per the FIR.
(With PTI inputs)
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