Coming to the defence of Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister and ruling DMK’s Youth Wing Secretary Udhayanidhi Stalin in the Sanatan row, the party has termed ‘wrong’ the Madras High Court quashing the FIR against BJP IT Cell chief Amit Malviya for his remarks against the former.
Reacting to the Madurai Bench of the High Court quashing the FIR and observing that the party to which the minister belonged had repeatedly attacked Hindu beliefs, DMK spokesperson Saravanan Annadurai has said “personal belief of the judge has no place in a judgment’. Further in his post on ‘X’, he faulted the Court for not adhering to the dictum ‘Audi Alteram Partem’ (nobody should be condemned unheard).
“It does not adhere to a cardinal principle of jurisprudence. Audi Alteram partem… The personal belief or ideology of the Judge should not find a place in the judgment,” Saravanan said, responding to Union Minister Piyush Goyal’s social media post, claiming that the HC ruling was ‘a strong rebuke to the DMK’s narrow, anti-Hindu mindset’. After Malviya’s posts, an Ayodhya-based monk had announced a reward of Rs 10 crore for beheading Udhayanidhi.
The case stems from the 2023 speech of Udhayanidhi, equating Sanatan to dengue and malaria and calling for its eradication at the ‘Sanatan Abolition Conference’ in Chennai, organised by the Tamil Nadu Progressive Writers and Artists Association. Reacting to it, Malviya in his posts claimed that Udhayanidhi had given a call for the genocide of the adherents of Sanatan Dharma. Following this, a DMK functionary had filed a complaint and an FIR was registered against Malviya.
Justice S Srimathy, in her order passed on Wednesday, observed that Malviya’s posts were a response to a public speech already in circulation, and hence prosecuting him would cause ‘irreparable harm and injury’. “This court with pain records the prevailing situation that the persons who initiate hate speech are let scot-free, but those react to such speech face the wrath of law,” the Judge noted, adding, “There is material on record to show repeated instances of attacks on Hindu beliefs by the party to which the minister belongs, and these circumstances have to be formed as the background against which Malviya’s reaction has to be assessed.”
Meanwhile, sources said that the DMK is likely to go on appeal against the verdict.