Criminal defamation: HC reserves orders on plea moved by K Ponmudi

Chennai: Madras high court has reserved orders on a plea moved by former DMK minister K Ponmudi to quash the criminal defamation complaint moved by BJP West Mambalam councillor Uma Anand, for his alleged derogatory remarks against Shaivism, Vaishnavism, and women.Concluding the final hearing, Justice G K Ilanthiraiyan reserved orders on Thursday. On March 26, the court passed an interim order staying further proceedings of the complaint pending before a metropolitan magistrate court, Chennai. On Feb 27, the III Metropolitan Magistrate N Vasudevan admitted the private comp;laint moved by Uma Anand and issued summons to Ponmudi.The issue pertains to a speech made by Ponmudi at a public gathering.

Subsequently, Madras high court initiated a suo motu proceeding against the former minister. Though the court closed the suo motu proceeding, it observed that a person occupying a high position must refrain from making such remarks in a public speech. The court also granted liberty to more than 100 complainants in the cases registered across the state to approach the magistrate concerned for any further relief.The magistrate in his order observed that a prima facie case was made out against the accused for offences under Section 196(i)(a) (attempting to promote disharmony between different religious, racial, language, or regional groups/castes using spoken/written words, signs, or electronic communication), 299 (malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings), and 302 (deliberate wounding of religious feelings) of BNS.