Sanatan Dharma remark: SC issues notice on plea seeking FIR against TN minister Udhayanidhi Stalin

PTI, Sep 22, 2023, 2:19 PM IST

The Supreme Court on Friday sought responses from the Tamil Nadu government and its minister Udhayanidhi Stalin on a plea seeking an FIR against him for his ”eradicate Sanatan Dharma” remark.

A bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Bela M Trivedi issued notices on a plea filed by B Jagannath seeking an FIR against the Tamil Nadu minister on grounds that the remarks are akin to hate speech and that the top court had in similar matters passed several directions, including registration of FIR.

Senior advocate Dama Seshadri Naidu, appearing for the petitioner, submitted that the minister allegedly asked school students to say that this religion is not good and that the other religion is good. ”This court has taken note of similar matters where individuals make such a statement against another’s faith but in this case it is a minister making the statement. Here it is a state, which is telling the school students that so and so religion is wrong,” Naidu said.

The bench asked Naidu what was he seeking from the court, to which the senior lawyer said he is seeking a restraining order against the minister (Stalin) from making any such statement and secondly that an FIR be registered.

”We are also seeking that students should be kept out of this,” he said. The bench said, ”Although we are issuing notice, you are turning the Supreme Court into a police station by approaching it for registration of FIR. You should have gone to the high court.” Naidu said they were compelled to approach the court as he is a minister and when they went to register FIR, no one registered it.