Tamil Nadu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief K Annamalai has moved the Supreme Court seeking to implead the Tamil Nadu government as a respondent in the hate speech case against him. In an interlocutory application filed before the top court, Annamalai said that since the police had not registered a hate speech case against him when they received the complaint, the state should be impleaded in the case for proper adjudication.
In October 2022, Annamalai gave an interview to the Pesu Thamizha Pesu YouTube channel, in which he allegedly stated that the first petition seeking a ban on bursting firecrackers was filed by a Christian missionary NGO. Based on this interview, environmentalist V Piyush filed a police complaint against Annamalai, which was not taken up by the police who said that it did not attract any breach of public peace.
Piyush then filed a petition at a lower court in Salem. The court prima facie found that Annamalai committed offenses under Sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony) and 505(1)(b) (statements conducing to public mischief) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and issued summons to initiate criminal proceedings.
Annamalai approached the Madras High Court challenging the lower court’s order. Justice N Anand Venkatesh refused to quash the criminal proceedings against him and also pulled up the BJP leader for his comments, saying that the case “serves as a reminder to those in positions of power” that their words and deeds have a wider reach and greater impact on the public.
Following this, Annamalai moved the Supreme Court against the High Court order refusing to quash the criminal proceedings in the case. The Supreme Court had, in April, stayed the proceedings against Annamalai and adjourned the case till September. It is in this case that Annamalai has now sought to implead the state government as the second respondent.
“Since the Inspector of Police, Cyber Crime Police station, Salem City considered the matter on merits and closed the complaint, therefore the view of the state is necessary for proper adjudication,” he contended in his petition.