CHENNAI: The Madras High Court today stayed all the criminal proceedings against Tamil poet and lyricist R Vairamuthu with regard to his alleged remarks against a Hindu goddess.
Justice M S Ramesh granted the injunction while passing interim orders on a criminal original plea from Vairamuthu, who had sought a direction for quashing the proceedings against him at the Kolathur police station here.
The judge also orally observed that prima facie no case was made out against Vairamuthu.
The Kolathur police had lodged a case against Vairamuthu, following a complaint from Muruganatham, who is said to be an office-bearer of the "Samudaya Nalliyakka Peravai", a wing of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP).
According to the complainant, the lyricist had made some remarks against Hindu goddess Andal, which could lead to communal disharmony and a law-and-order problem as they hurt the religious sentiments of the Hindus, especially the Vaishnavites.
In his petition, Vairamuthu had submitted that in an article published in a Tamil daily, he had merely incorporated a quotation of an American author referring to Andal and that it was not his opinion.
The complainant had lodged the "false complaint with ulterior and malicious motives", the petition read.
Andal, the only woman among the 12 revered Vaishnavite saints hailed as "Alwars" in Tamil, is also venerated as a goddess and a gifted poet on account of her classic Tamil work, "Thiruppavai", in praise of Lord Krishna.
According to spiritual texts, she lived in the eighth century AD in Srivilliputhur.