NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday expressed displeasure with Tamil Nadu minister Udhayanidhi Stalin for his "hateful" 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.
A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta told senior advocate A M Singhvi, appearing for Stalin that he should approach the respective High Court for relief.
"You abused your right under Article 19(1)(a) for freedom of speech and expression of the Constitution. You abuse your right under Article 25 for freedom of religion. Now you are exercising your right under Article 32 of the Constitution? Do you not know the consequences of what you said," the bench told Singhvi.
The counsel for his submitted that the FIRs have been registered in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bengaluru, Patna, Jammu and others.
He said if the petitioner has to move the High Court, he would have to approach at least six High Courts.
"I will be constantly tied up in this. This is persecution before the prosecution," Singhvi said.
To this, the bench said, "You are not a layman, you are a minister, you should know the consequences."
The counsel also cited the previous Supreme Court's judgments in case of Arnab Goswami, Mohd Zubair, Amish Devgan, Nupur Sharma on clubbing of FIRs.
"I will suffer my fate, nothing on merits. I am not justifying, accepting or denying. This was said in a private meeting. If I have to go to different High Court...," the counsel said
The bench then said why the witnesses from J&K should have to come to a particular State.
The court, however, posted his plea for hearing on March 15, for going through the judgments and progress of the proceedings in some of the cases.
In a meeting held on September 2, 2023 as 'Sanatana Dharma Eradication conference', Udhayanidhi Stalin, son of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin, allegedly made hate speech against Hindu Dharma.
In his petition, Udhayanidhi said, "Every citizen has the right to question the very existence of God, religion and religious dogma. This is a Constitutional guarantee. Religious doctrine or dogma is not above criticism when it leads to discrimination, suffering and oppression."
He had participated in the programme and spoke about eradication of social evils and upliftment of all castes and genders. He sought orders for quashing of the multiple FIRs and clubbing those to the file of Special MP and MLA court Chennai.
