Udhayanidhi's Sanatan Dharma remark: SC seeks reply from UP, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Bihar & J&K on plea for clubbing FIRs

Earlier in March this year, the court had pulled up Stalin for making his anti Hindu statements and seeking a relief for clubbing multiple FIRs lodged against him across the country, saying as a minister he should have been aware of the consequences.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday sought response from multiple state governments and complainants on a plea filed by Tamil Nadu Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin seeking a direction to club the criminal cases registered against him for his controversial remarks on Sanatan Dharma.

A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta allowed the amendment of the petition moved by Stalin.

"Amendment application is allowed. The writ petition will be taken on record and notice will be served accordingly," the bench said, after a brief submission by senior advocates A M Singhvi and P Wilson on behalf of Stalin.

The bench sought responses from the Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Bihar and Jammu and Kashmir where cases were registered against the DMK leader. Stalin, the Minister of Youth Welfare and Sports in the state, is a well-known film actor and son of Chief Minister and DMK chief, M K Stalin.

On April 1, the court had questioned Stalin why he had filed a petition under Article 32 (remedies for enforcement of fundamental rights) of the Constitution instead of invoking Section 406 (power of Supreme Court to transfer cases and appeals) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).

On March 4, the court had pulled up Stalin for making his anti Hindu statements and seeking a relief for clubbing multiple FIRs lodged against him across the country, saying as a minister he should have been aware of the consequences.

He had cited the Supreme Court's judgments in cases of Arnab Goswami, Mohd Zubair, Amish Devgan, Nupur Sharma on clubbing of FIRs.

In a meeting held on September 2, 2023 as 'Sanatana Dharma Eradication conference', Udhayanidhi Stalin allegedly made hate speech against Hindu Dharma.

He compared Sanatan Dharma with coronavirus, malaria and dengue, which should be destroyed.

In his writ petition, Udhayanidhi asked the top court to club the FIRs registered in Uttar Pradesh, Bengaluru, Patna, Jammu and other places.