Madras HC initiates suo motu proceedings against Ponmudy

The Madras high court on Wednesday initiated suo motu proceedings against Tamil Nadu minister K Ponmudy over his recent controversial remarks.

Justice N Anand Venkatesh said Ponmudy’s comment was “prima facie” akin to “hate speech,” and directed the High Court Registry to place the suo motu case before chief justice K Sriram to decide on the further course of action in the matter.

On April 17, justice Venkatesh took serious note of the issue after an extract of the video containing Ponmudy’s remarks was played in open court by a lawyer, during the hearing of a 2023 suo motu revision petition taken up by the court against the minister’s acquittal in a case of disproportionate assets. This case was also initiated by justice Venkatesh.

At the time, the judge asked the state police to file an FIR against Ponmudi for his comments made on April 8 during a local meeting. Amid a public uproar over these comments, Ponmudy was also removed by the DMK from his post of the party deputy general secretary.

On Wednesday, when the 2023 revision petition was taken up for hearing, justice Venkatesh noted that the police remained “motionless” and not taken any action against the minister despite a court order.

Justice Venkatesh said that it was the police’s duty to ensure orders of the Supreme Court on curbing hate speech were complied with. The judge also took a strong exception to the submissions made by senior advocate and state’s counsel P Wilson, in Ponmudy’s defence.

Wilson told the court that several complaints were received by the police against the minister after his comment was circulated on social media. However, the police probed these complaints and closed them after concluding that no case was made against Ponmudy. Wilson also informed the court that the Madurai Bench of the Madras HC had already dismissed two petitions seeking action against Ponmudi over the said remarks.

Justice Venkatesh, however, said there cannot be any tolerance for hate speech. The judge then went on to translate Ponmudy’s remarks made in Tamil to English and asked if anyone would speak in such a manner in front of their own families?

The court said that in the April 8 meeting, Ponmudi had narrated story in which a prostitute asked a man if he were a Shaivite or Vaishnavite, before telling him how much she expected to be paid for her services. The court went into further details of the story and Ponmudi’s remarks and said it was evident that the minister had not only demeaned the “moral worth of sex workers,” but he had also intended to “subvert harmony and peace of various religious groups.”

Senior advocate Vikas Singh, who appeared Ponmudy in the suo motu revision case, argued that the comments had been made in a closed meeting and only a truncated version of the speech had been made public. He also pointed out that Ponmudy had merely been stating something that was part of a story from over 40 years ago.

The court however, underscored that there must be zero tolerance to hate speech, and ordered the Registry to record it had initiated suo motu proceedings against Ponmudi and place the matter before the Chief Justice for further action.

Previously, the Madras High Court had found Ponmudy guilty in December 2023 which had led to his immediate disqualification as a MLA and as minister for Tamil Nadu’s higher education. But, in March 2024, the Supreme Court suspended his conviction and four-year jail sentence in a disproportionate assets (DA) case. Following this, he was inducted again into the Stalin-led cabinet.