Snehal Upadhyay-
Supreme Court has dismissed a charge sheet that was filed against DMK leader and Rajya Sabha MP RS Bharathi.
The charge sheet was filed under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act alleging over a speech conveyed by him.
The charge sheet was filed after he gave his speech in a meeting organized by the leaders of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in the name of ‘Kalaignar Vasagar Vattam’. He talked about the appointment of Justice Varadarajan as a High Court Judge after Late M. Karunanidhi came to power.
Further, he alleged that the appointments of the person belonging to the community of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes are ambit the Dravidian movement.
The division bench comprising Justices L. Nageswara Rao and Aniruddha Bose observed that there was no disrespect portrayed in the speech given by the RS Bharathi, though he gave a haranguing speech which could have been avoided.
The Court further said that the speech had no basis which could have attracted offence under either Section 3(1)(u) or 3(1)(v) of the SC-ST Act.
Earlier, Madras High Court denied dismissing the criminal proceedings which were put against the DMK leader.
The Apex Court stated that Madras High Court has made a mistake in remarking to the MP that people outside Tamil Nadu are idiots, targeting the Scheduled Castes, and also caused humiliation and insult to the Scheduled Castes.
“A careful analysis of the speech shows that the Appellant indulged in an intemperate rant which, should have been avoided. However, there is nothing in the speech which attracts an offence under either Section 3(1)(u) or 3(1)(v) of the SCST Act”, the bench said while quashing the criminal proceedings against the DMK leader.