The Madras High Court on Wednesday dismissed petitions challenging the continuation of Tamil Nadu ministers Udhayanidhi Stalin and Sekar Babu as legislators over their remarks on “eradicating Sanatana Dharma”.
The high court observed that Stalin’s and other leaders’ remarks were “wrong”, but noted that they had not been convicted by any court yet and dismissed the petition.
“Equating Sanatana Dharma to HIV, malaria, and dengue is against constitutional principles and amounts to spreading misinformation and is against constitutional principles and amounts to spreading misinformation,” the High Court said.
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“Divisive comments should not be made by someone holding a constitutional post. Those holding constitutional positions can only propound one principle which is the principle of constitutionalism,” the court further observed.
However, the court stated, “The writ petition of Quo Warranto cannot be issued as no action has been taken against Stalin under the law that can lead to his disqualification.”
Earlier on Monday, the Supreme Court earlier on Monday slammed Stalin over his controversial remarks that ‘Sanatana Dharma’ ought to be “eradicated” from the country, stating that he had abused his free speech rights. The bench presided by Justice Sanjiv Khanna was hearing Udhayanidhi’s plea to club the FIRs filed in different states over his remarks as the cause of action in all of them was the same.
“You abuse your Article 19(1)(a) right. You abuse your Article 25 right. Now you are exercising your Article 32 right? Do you not know the consequences of what you said?” Justice Dipankar Datta, who was part of a two-judge bench, asked Udhayanidhi.
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In September last year, Udhayanidhi Stalin sparked a row after he compared Sanatana Dharma with “dengue” and “malaria” and said that it should not just be opposed, but “eradicated”.
“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,” he had said.