'Sanatana Dharma': SC refuses to entertain contempt plea against Udhayanidhi Stalin

The Supreme Court, on Wednesday, November 29, said that it would not entertain a plea seeking contempt action against Tamil Nadu minister Udhayanidhi Stalin over his statements on 'Sanatana Dharma', “If we start entertaining contempt, we will be flooded with it. We will not go into individual cases,” said a bench comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna and SVN Bhatti, as it heard a batch of pleas concerning hate speech in the country, including a plea seeking contempt action against Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin's son Udhayanidhi Stalin.

The bench said that if it starts going into individual cases, it will not be able to deal with the main matter itself, adding that it will be ‘impossible’ to hear individual cases across the country. “We cannot deal with individual aspects. What we will do is to put an administration mechanism in place and if there is any breach, then you will have to go to the respective High Court," the court observed.

It may be recalled that a bench comprising Justices Aniruddha Bose and Bela M Trivedi in September had issued notice on a plea seeking directions for registration of an FIR against Udhayanidhi and the organisers of the 'Sanatana Dharma Eradication Conference'. In April this year, the top court had stressed that the Constitution envisages India as a secular nation, while directing all states and Union Territories to take strict action in hate speech cases, and register criminal cases irrespective of religion against the culprits without waiting for a complaint to be filed.

Udhayanidhi was speaking at a Sanatanam (Sanatan Dharma) Abolition Conclave organised by the Tamil Nadu Progressive Writers Forum in September, when he compared Sanatana Dharma with diseases such as dengue and malaria, saying it was against the idea of social justice. His remarks drew widespread criticism, with BJP leaders interpreting it as a call for a ‘genocide’ of Hindus.

Read: Udhayanidhi Stalin’s comments on Sanatana Dharma stoke huge row

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