NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear a plea seeking the registration of an FIR against Tamil Nadu Minister and DMK leader Udhayanidhi Stalin over his controversial remarks on 'Sanatana dharma'.
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, that 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 was 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 an FIR, no one registered it.
The plea also sought FIR against the organisers of the September 2 meeting titled “Sanatana Dharma Eradication conference” and also Tamil Nadu Hindu Religious Charitable Endowment Minister PK Sekar Babu and Chairman of State Minorities Commission, Peter Alphonse, a bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Bela M Trivedi also sought response from Tamil Nadu government, CBI and nine other parties.
(with inputs from PTI, Shruti Kakkar)
