Chennai, Jan 21 The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has quashed a criminal case registered by the Trichy City Crime Branch police against Amit Malviya, a national office-bearer of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in connection with a social media post related to remarks made by Udhayanidhi Stalin on Sanatan Dharma.
The case stemmed from a complaint filed by Advocate Dinakaran, who is the district organiser of the DMK Advocates’ Wing.
The complaint was lodged at a police station in Trichy, alleging that a post shared by Amit Malviya on social media platform X had the potential to incite communal disharmony.
The controversy traces back to a speech delivered in 2023 by Udhayanidhi Stalin, the Youth Welfare and Sports Development Minister of Tamil Nadu, at the 'Sanatana Abolition Conference' organised by the Tamil Nadu Progressive Writers and Artists Association.
Addressing the gathering as a special guest, the Minister had drawn a distinction between concepts that should merely be opposed and those that, according to him, should be eradicated.
In his speech, Udhayanidhi Stalin stated that social evils should be treated like diseases such as dengue, malaria, or coronavirus, which, he said, are not simply opposed but eradicated.
Using this analogy, he remarked that Sanatan should also be eradicated rather than merely opposed, adding that the title of the conference was therefore apt.
A video clip of this speech was later shared by Amit Malviya on X. In his accompanying post, Malviya claimed that Udhayanidhi Stalin, the son of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, had compared Sanatana to deadly diseases and had effectively called for its eradication.
Malviya further alleged that such remarks amounted to a call for genocide against India’s population.
Based on the complaint, the Trichy City Crime Branch registered a case against Malviya under Sections 153 and 153A of the Indian Penal Code, which deal with promoting enmity and acts prejudicial to communal harmony.
Challenging the registration of the case, Amit Malviya approached the Madurai Bench of the High Court seeking its quashing. After hearing the submissions, Justice Srimathi allowed the petition and ordered that the criminal proceedings initiated against Malviya be quashed, bringing an end to the case.
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