HC quashes TN police's Malviya FIR

The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on January 20 quashed the 2023 FIR registered by Tiruchi city police against BJP leader Amit Malviya for allegedly "distorting" remarks made by Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin on Sanatana Dharma, holding that continuing criminal proceedings against Malviya would amount to an abuse of the process of law.

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Allowing Malviya's petition, Justice S. Srimathy made sharp observations on the contents of Udhayanidhi Stalin's 2023 speech, ruling that the minister's remarks amounted to hate speech. Justice Srimathy went further, observing that the minister's speech could even imply genocide or culturicide.

If Sanatana Dharma was to be "abolished" or "eradicated", the judge reasoned, it would necessarily imply eliminating the people who practise it. The Tamil phrase "Sanatana ozhippu”, the court held, could be interpreted as genocide or religicide.

The judge underlined that the speech had to be examined in its entirety and not in isolated fragments, reported Live Law.