Supreme Court quashes criminal case against DMK MP RS Bharathi for speech about judges from SC/ST communities

The Supreme Court on July 19, 2021 quashed the criminal proceedings initiated against DMK Rajya Sabha lawmaker RS Bharathi under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act for a speech he made in 2020..A Bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and Aniruddha Bose held that Bharathi's speech did not fulfill the ingredients to attract the offenses for which was charged.."A careful reading of the speech does not show that there is any attempt made by the appellant to promote or attempt to promote enmity, hatred or ill will against the members of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe community. On the other hand, the speech indicates that members of Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribes have been benefited due to the benevolence of Late M. Karunanidhi," the Court said. .Criminal proceedings were initiated against Bharathi for the March 2020 speech in which he had said, “I am openly telling you not even one Harijan has become a High Court Judge in Northern states specially in Madhya Pradesh. But in Tamil Nadu when Kalaignar came to power, he got Varadharajan appointed as a High Court Judge. Afterwards, if 7-8 people belonging to Adi Dravida Community became judges, it was because of the alms of the Dravidian movement…” .Bharathi was charged for offences under under Section 3 (1) (u) & (v) of the SC/ST Act for promoting or attempting to promote "feelings of enmity, hatred or ill-will against members”.He had moved the Madras High Court under Section 482 of Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) seeking quashing of the case but the same was turned down prompting the appeal before the Supreme Court. .The Supreme Court noted that the "tenor of the speech is that the members of Adi Dravida Community have benefited because of Kalaignar (Late M Karunanidhi) and Justice Varadarajan was appointed as a judge of the High Court"..The top court held that the High Court committed an error in holding that Bharathi remarked that people outside Tamil Nadu are idiots or that it targeted Scheduled Caste community. "A further mistake made by the High Court is in its conclusion that the statement made by the Appellant is targeting the Scheduled Castes. The High Court further went wrong in observing that the speech also caused humiliation and insult to the Scheduled Castes. We have carefully gone through the speech. We are of the opinion that there is no disrespect shown to Justice Varadarajan," said the order. However, a careful analysis of the speech shows that the appellant indulged in intemperate rant which should have been avoided, the Court added. ."Other members of the Adi Dravida Community were also appointed as judges due to the indulgence shown by Late M Karunanidhi. 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 top court made it clear. It, therefore, set aside the High Court verdict and allowed the appeal .[Read Order]