New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to quash criminal cases lodged against BJP leader H Raja over his remarks against Dravidian movement leader Periyar, DMK party leaders etc, saying, "people in politics have to be circumspect about what they utter".
A bench comprising Justices Hrishikesh Roy and Prashant Kumar Mishra expressed its discontent on the quality of discourse in politics and underlined that politicians should be careful while making statements. Senior advocate Dama Seshadri Naidu, appeared for the petitioner before the top court.
"We are so impressed by your arguments that we will simply say dismissed. People in politics have to be circumspect about what they utter. Somehow, we are reducing the level of discourse," said the bench, while refusing to entertain Raja's plea.
The petitioner moved the Supreme Court challenging the order passed by the Madras High Court in August last year, declining to quash any of the FIRs registered across Tamil Nadu against the BJP leader.
In the High Court, single-judge Justice N Anand Venkatesh had refused to accept Raja's contention that he had made such comments as he had been under much anguish at the time. The High Court reminded Raja that he was a public figure and thus expected to mind his language even when feeling anguished.
Raja was booked for allegedly having made "disparaging" remarks against Periyar, DMK leaders, officials of the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Department and their wives in a public speech and through social media posts in 2018.
Read More
