The Madras High Court on Tuesday questioned the Tamil Nadu police’s decision to close over 100 complaints received against Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leader K Ponmudi for his vulgar comments about women, Shaivites and Vaishnavites at a public event earlier this year, asking how the police concluded that his statement did not amount to hate speech without a formal probe.
A single bench of justice P Velmurugan also criticised Ponmudi, a former minister who had to resign from the cabinet on April 27 following the outrage over his remarks, stressing that politicians were not above the law.
“Nowadays, all politicians, all persons making public speeches think Article 19 (freedom of speech) gives them absolute rights… that only the sky is the limit. The court cannot simply be a silent spectator. There are reasonable restrictions. There are several sects, religious communities… they (public figures) should think about it when they are in public life. They must understand that they are living in a democratic country; it is for every citizen, not just any particular citizen. 146 crore people are living in this country. Everyone taking a mic in public must understand. A strong message should go. So many things are being said as if they (politicians) are the kings of this country.... they think they can do no wrong. The court cannot watch these things silently,” justice Velmurugan said.
The observation came after the advocate general (A-G) PS Raman, who appeared for the Tamil Nadu government, told the court that the police examined over 120 complaints received against Ponmudi and concluded that he hadn’t committed an offence but merely “repeated something that had been said decades ago.”
{{/usCountry}}The observation came after the advocate general (A-G) PS Raman, who appeared for the Tamil Nadu government, told the court that the police examined over 120 complaints received against Ponmudi and concluded that he hadn’t committed an offence but merely “repeated something that had been said decades ago.”
{{/usCountry}}Therefore, Raman said, the police decided to “close all complaints” against Ponmudi in the case.
Justice Velmurugan, however, questioned the legality of the decision at the stage of a preliminary inquiry, saying police could not decide whether the speech amounts to hate speech “without a formal investigation.”
The judge said it would keep the proceedings against the former minister open and warned that it would act against the state government if the police closed the complaints without giving notice to the complainants.
“We will keep the suo motu case pending. You will have to get acknowledgements from the complainants for closing their complaints. If any person comes and says they have not been served with notice before closing, this court will come down heavily,” justice Velmurugan said.
The high court will next take up the case on August 1.
During a local political event on April 8, Ponmudi had drawn parallels between the Tilak or symbols drawn on the forehead by Shaivites, devotees of the Hindu god Shiva, and Vaishnavites, devotees of Vishnu, and “sexual positions offered by a prostitute”, provoking widespread outrage.
Justice N Anand Venkatesh of the Madras High Court initiated suo motu proceedings over the offensive remarks by Ponmudi, who was the forest minister at the time, observing that Ponmudi’s comments were “prima facie hate speech, derogatory to women, and offensive to religious communities.”
When the police did not register a case against the DMK leader, justice Velmurugan on June 13 issued notices to the state’s police to explain their inaction.
Ponmudi, who was removed by the DMK as the party’s deputy general secretary following his remark and later dropped from the cabinet, had earlier acknowledged that he passed the remarks but insisted that he had only repeated a widely known anecdote.
Justice Venkatesh, who had first taken up the matter, observed at the time that his comments “spew venom on Hindu sects and demean the moral worth of women” and may attract multiple provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.