SC continues stay of hate case proceedings against Annamalai

Supreme Court extends stay on criminal proceedings against Tamil Nadu BJP leader for hate speech accusation.

The Supreme Court on April 29 continued its February order of stay of criminal proceedings against Tamil Nadu BJP state president K. Annamalai in a hate speech case instituted for his remark that a Christian missionary NGO was behind a petition filed in the apex court seeking a ban on the bursting of firecrackers during Deepavali.

A Bench headed by Justice Sanjiv Khanna adjourned the case to September, after the Lok Sabha polls.

The adjournment came on a request from Salem-based activist V. Piyush who had filed the complaint against Mr. Annamalai.

The BJP leader had approached the apex court after the Madras High Court refused to quash the criminal trial pending against him before a Magistrate court in Salem.

The complaint accused Mr. Annamalai of resorting to hate speech with his comment that “a Christian missionary had filed a writ before the Supreme Court against bursting of crackers during Diwali” in an interview in October 2022.

The Magistrate had taken cognisance of Mr. Piyush’s complaint even though the Cyber Cell of the Tamil Nadu Police had rejected the accusation that the statement amounted to hate speech. The petition said the Magistrate had issued a summons to Mr. Annamalai without even bothering to conduct an enquiry or even watch the video recording of the interview.

Mr. Annamalai had argued that the High Court refused to quash the case despite its earlier observations that there was no “primary facie case” against him.