CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Friday issued notices to the Director General of Police/Head of Police Force of Tamil Nadu and the Greater Chennai Commissioner of Police on a suo motu writ petition taken up by the court for registering a criminal case against DMK MLA and former minister K Ponmudy for his derogatory remarks against Saivism and Vaishnavism.
The order to take up a suo motu case was passed by Justice N Anand Venkatesh in April, following which it was numbered with the concurrence of the Chief Justice and came up for hearing before Justice P Velmurugan on Friday.
The controversial remark was made by Ponmudy at an event organised by Thanthai Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam in Chennai on April 8 in which he recalled a “joke” frequently used in the past on the platforms of the Dravidian movement, with references to symbols used in Saivism, Vaishnavism and sex workers.
After the issue snowballed into a controversy, Ponmudy was first stripped of his party post as deputy general secretary and later his cabinet berth. Justice Anand Venkatesh had earlier asked the Tamil Nadu police to register an FIR against Ponmudy for his remarks. However, on learning that no FIR has been registered when the case came up again for hearing on April 23, he directed the court’s registry to take up a suo motu writ petition in this regard.