The Madras High Court on Thursday refused to quash a case of sedition booked by the Salem city police in September this year against T.T.V. Dhinakaran, sidelined leader of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, his supporter V. Pugalendhi of Karnataka State unit of the party and 15 others.
Justice M.S. Ramesh dismissed Mr. Pugalendhi’s quash petition after concurring with Advocate-General Vijay Narayan that a prima facie case of sedition as well as defamation had been made out on the basis of pamphlets distributed by the accused calling people to agitate against the Centre as well as the State government.
“It is seen that in the pamphlets there is a call to the general public to demonstrate and agitate against the Central Government as well as State Government. As a matter of fact, most of these sentences/phrases in the pamphlets, as reiterated in the complaint, disclose the ingredients of the offences of sedition as well as defamation,” the judge said.
He went on to state that to constitute the offence of sedition punishable under Section 124-A of Indian Penal Code, it would be necessary that the accused must have used words, either spoken or written, which may bring or attempt to bring into hatred or contempt or excite or attempt to excite disaffection towards the government.
“On a reading of the printed pamphlets/complaint, all the ingredients of Section124-A and 500 (defamation) of IPC have been made out,” Mr. Justice Ramesh added.
‘Instigated people’
He also pointed out that the pamphlets had instigated people to demonstrate against the introduction of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) for admission into medical courses though the Supreme Court had directed the State government to curb all violent protests organised in the State against NEET. “Since the pamphlets attempt to incite the public to protest and demonstrate, the first respondent police were well within the powers to register the complaint in accordance with the directions of the honourable Supreme Court,” the judge added.
