Sanatan Dharma remarks: SC tags plea seeking FIR against Udhayanidhi Stalin with pending petition

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday tagged a plea, which has sought registration of an FIR against Tamil Nadu minister Udhayanidhi Stalin over his "eradicate Sanatan Dharma" remark, with another similar pending petition.

A bench of justices Aniruddha Bose and Bela M Trivedi was hearing a plea seeking direction for registration of an First Information Report (FIR) against Udhayanidhi Stalin and DMK leader A Raja for their comments on Sanatan Dharma.

On September 22, the top court had agreed to hear a separate plea filed by Chennai-based lawyer B Jagannath seeking registration of an FIR against Udhayanidhi Stalin and others over his "eradicate Sanatan Dharma" remark, which the petitioner likened to hate speech.

Udhayanidhi Stalin, who is also an actor, is the son of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and ruling DMK chief M K Stalin.

The plea filed by Delhi-based advocate Vineet Jindal came up for hearing before the bench on Wednesday.

"We will not issue notice but we will tag it," the bench told the counsel appearing for the petitioner.

The lawyer appearing for Tamil Nadu argued that the plea was a "public interest litigation in the nature of publicity interest litigation".

He said the top court had last week issued notice on the other petition having similar prayer and there was no need to have another such plea.

"Instead of taking notice, we will take it up on that day," the bench said, adding, "The question of entertaining itself, we will take it up that day".

Terming it an "unfortunate scenario", the state's counsel said in this matter, several writ petitions have been filed in different high courts and it becomes difficult for the state.

"You have the appropriate remedy under the Constitution," the bench observed, adding, "We are only tagging it".

In his petition, Jindal has said that he is aggrieved by the "outrageous, defaming and demeaning remarks" allegedly made by the two DMK leaders against Sanatan Dharma.

The plea has claimed such remarks against the Sanatan Dharma amounted to "hate speech".

"The petitioner, being a Hindu and Sanatan Dharma follower, his religious sentiments are hurt by statements made by the respondent no. 7 and 8 (Udhayanidhi Stalin and Raja) calling for eradicating Sanatan Dharma and further comparing Sanatan with mosquitoes, dengue, corona, and malaria," the plea said.

It has also sought a direction to the Centre and state of Tamil Nadu to take appropriate action against the Delhi and Chennai Police for allegedly not initiating any inquiry suo-motu against the two in view of the April 28 order of the apex court.

The top court had on April 28 this year directed all states and union territories to register cases against those making hate speeches even if no complaint was made.