Jan 21 2015 : The Times of India (Ahmedabad) HC: Extra-judicial groups cant tell an author what to write Chennai TIMES NEWS NETWORK Disapproves Of Meet That Led To Perumal’s Book Withdrawal The Madras high court on Tuesday said extrajudicial groups wielding the power to decide what is right and what not, and telling authors what to write and what not to write, is a big concern. The first bench of Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice M M Sundresh was hearing a petition filed by a writers’ forum on the controversy over Tamil author Perumal Murugan’s novel. The PIL filed by Tamil Nadu Progressive Writers and Artists Association president S Tamilselvam highlighted the social ostracism suffered by Murugan in his native town of Thiruchengode over his novel ‘Mathorubagan’ (One Part Woman), which was perceived to of fend religious and social sentiments of locals. The petition wanted the court to set aside the minutes of a peace committee meeting held at the Namakkal district collectorate on January 12. When the matter was taken up, Tamilselvan’s counsel sought to move an application to implead Murugan as a party to the proceedings so that the court could hear his stand. On January 12, the Namakkal district administra tion led by a revenue divisional officer held a ‘peace committee’ meeting to end the local unrest over the novel. Besides an ‘unconditional apology’, an ‘undertaking’ was obtained from Murugan to withdraw all the copies of the book from the market, delete the objectionable portions from the book and not to write on controversial subjects in future. Criticizing the peace meeting and the undertaking obtained from the author under duress and coercion, the PIL wanted it to be quashed. The judges wondered how they could pass any order with regard to the undertaking when it was not known whether it had been obtained by force or whether there was any truth in the allegations of coercion. Disapproving of the peace meeting, the judges said the authorities should have advised protesting groups to lodge complaints if they were aggrieved by his writings. The person who wrote the book should be tested only before a court of law, they said, adding the authorities should not play into the hands of extra-judicial groups. These issues should not be determined by such groups of people. The bench suggested that instead of limiting its prayer only for quashing or staying Murugan’s undertaking, the petitioner should go into the larger issue of freedom of expression and the threats it faces, so that the court could pass detailed orders with perspective. The bench then adjourned the matter to January 22 for further proceedings.
Posted on: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 08:26:39 +0000
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