Responding to his recent set of ‘controversial’ remarks, Justice N. Anand Venkatesh of the Madras High Court Wednesday initiated suo motu proceedings against Tamil Nadu minister K. Ponmudy, who was earlier Tuesday found guilty of hate speech by another bench of the Madras High Court. The High Court Registry has been directed by the court to place the case before Chief Justice K. Sriram to decide what direction it falls in the legal process next.
It is based on a hearing that Justice Venkatesh had taken seriously on April 17 when a lawyer played a video of Ponmudy making the remarks on April 8 in open court. And that happened during the hearing of a suo motu revision petition fraudulently filed by the minister in 2023 concerning his acquittal in a disproportionate assets case that Justice Venkatesh had himself taken up.
The judge expressed his concern over the nonchalant approach of the Tamil Nadu police towards filing an FIR against the minister, despite the earlier court order. Justice Venkatesh points out that the police remained motionless as their job was to enforce the guidelines the Supreme Court laid down on whether to implement and take action on hate speech incidents.
Ponmudy, however, was sacked by the DMK as Deputy General Secretary following public anger over his statements. Senior advocate and state counsel P. Wilson informed the court that the police have received several complaints following the viral social media response to Ponmudy‘s remarks. However, they had shut all cases since the preliminary inquiries substantiated no grounds for prosecution.
Wilson further said that the Madurai bench of the High Court had already dismissed two separate petitions demanding action against Ponmudy. However, Justice Venkatesh was not satisfied with the police’s response and went on to say that judicial scrutiny of such potentially inflammatory remarks will not end.
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