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The Madras High Court, on Tuesday, September 16, closed a suo motu writ petition against former Minister and senior Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leader K Ponmudy for his derogatory remarks against Shaivites, Vaishnavites and women.
While closing the case, the court orally remarked that Ponmudy, while holding the public office, should not have made such comments which would hurt the sentiments of people.
"If an ordinary person had uttered this, we could've avoided it. But a person in responsibility should not have uttered this. He should've asked for some advice before making such statements...It's not good for persons at the helm of affairs to speak like this. Everybody has rights under the Constitution. Sentiments should not be hurt like this," the court said, according to LiveLaw.
The bench also expressed dissatisfaction with the police for closing complaints without conducting a proper inquiry. Criticising the lack of action, the court said investigating officers should not follow their “political bosses”, but conduct a fair inquiry.
Slamming the police, Justice N Sathish Kumar granted liberty to the complainants to approach the jurisdictional magistrates challenging the closure reports served on them by the police.
“The Minister had admitted to making these derogatory comments and had, in fact, been removed from the post of Deputy General Secretary of DMK. Still, the police machinery, which is tasked with the job of tackling hate speech, lies motionless... The continued inaction and hesitation of the police in registering an FIR for hate speech against a Minister is most distressing and unfortunate,” the judge said, according to The Hindu.
The court had initiated a suo moto proceedings against Ponmudy, on April 23, after the state refused to file an FIR for his derogatory speech.
Ponmudy had said, “When a man visits a sex worker - she asks him if he is a Shaivite or a Vaishnavite. The confused man probes further, to which she responds that pattai - a horizontal tilak (associated with Shaivism) and a naamam - a vertical tilak (associated with Vaishnavism) - define whether the sexual position should be ‘lying down’ or ‘standing up’, respectively.”
These comments cost Ponmudy his post in the party. He was subsequently stripped off his cabinet post too.