The Supreme Court on Friday sought response to a petition seeking registration of an FIR against Udayanidhi Stalin, who had said that ‘Sanatana Dharma’ was against the idea of social justice and should be eradicated.
A bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Bela M Trivedi issued a notice to the Tamil Nadu government and Udayanidhi.
Why are you here? You go to the High Court.. If your plea is to register an FIR, is this a police station? The bench told the petitioners to approach the High Court.
Senior counsel appearing for the petitioner said that cases related to hate speech are pending before the Supreme Court.
“When the state government itself criticizes a particular religion and encourages speaking against a particular religion, only the Supreme Court should give redress to it.
A senior lawyer said that this is a case that inflames religious sentiments and hence the Supreme Court had to step up.
The bench initially refused to hear a petition filed by B Jagannath, a lawyer in the Madras High Court. But finally agreed to accept the petition and issue notice.
Tamil Nadu Hindu Religious Endowments Minister Sekar Babu, Lok Sabha Member A Raja, DMK President Veermani K Veermani and Tamil Nadu State Minorities Commission Chairman Peter Alphonse were also respondents in the petition.
Addressing a conference organized by the Tamil Nadu Progressive Writers Artists Association on September 2 on the theme of ‘Abolition of Sanatana’ in Chennai, Udayanidhi said that Sanatana is against the idea of social justice and needs to be eradicated. Some things cannot be resisted, only abolished. We cannot resist dengue, mosquitoes, malaria or corona. Udayanidhi had said that we must abolish this, we must abolish Sanatana.
His remarks created a political uproar. BJP leaders lashed out at Udhayanidhi, but Udayanidhi had stood by his statement saying he was “ready to face any legal challenge”.
