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'Can't compare yourself to media': SC to Udhayanidhi Stalin on Sanatan Dharma remark
The bench then ordered Stalin to amend his plea and file it under Section 406 CrPC and listed the matter for hearing in the week commencing on May 6.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday told Tamil Nadu leader Udhayanidhi Stalin -- who is seeking clubbing of multiple FIRs against him over his Sanatam Dharma remark -- that he cannot be equated with journalists and media professionals because he made the comment of his own volition. "You (Stalin) have made the statements voluntarily," said a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta.
The court made the remark after Stalin's lawyer argued that the Supreme Court ruled in favour of journalists like Arnab Goswami, Mohammed Zubair, Amish Devgan and politician Nupur Sharma, over similar pleas.
The court, however, differed with Stalin.
"After all, you have made the statements voluntarily. And the cases you cited--those were news media people who were working as per the diktats of their bosses to get TRPs. You cannot compare yourself to the media," it said.
Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi said Nupur Sharma's FIRs were also moved to a state.
"Nupur Sharma is a pure politician," Singhvi told the bench.
The top court then questioned why Stalin had filed a petition before the Supreme Court under Article 32 (remedies for enforcement of fundamental rights) of the Constitution instead of invoking Section 406 (power of Supreme Court to transfer cases and appeals) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).
The bench then ordered Stalin to amend his plea and file it under Section 406 CrPC and listed the matter for hearing in the week commencing on May 6.
Earlier this year, the Supreme Court had observed that Stalin was not a layman but a minister and that he should have understood the consequences of his remarks.
"You abuse your rights under freedom of speech and expression and right to freedom of religion and then come to the Supreme Court for protection under Article 32? Do you not know the consequences of what you said?," the bench had asked Stalin's counsel.
Stalin wants Supreme Court's directions regarding clubbing of all FIRs registered in Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir and Maharashtra.
Udhayanidhi Stalin, the son of Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin, had last year compared 'Sanatana Dharma' to diseases like 'malaria' and 'dengue'.
“A few things cannot be opposed, that should be abolished only. We can't oppose dengue, mosquitoes, malaria, or corona. We have to eradicate this, that's how we have to eradicate Sanatana. Rather opposing Sanatana it should be eradicated,” Udhayanidhi had said last year.
With inputs from ANI
