Madras High Court modifies comments in its judgment that said caste system is "less than a century old"

The Madras High Court has made certain changes to controversial comments in its order dismissing a plea to remove State Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin for his comments on the Sanatana Dharma..The judgment authored by single-judge Justice Anita Sumanth uploaded on the High Court website on March 6 contained some remarks on the origins of the caste system. It said:"However, the origins of the caste system as we know it today are less than a century old." .An updated version of this judgment uploaded after March 6 has omitted this line and replaced it with a new line. The judgment now includes the following text instead: "However, the categorization of castes as we know them today, is a far more recent and modern phenomenon". .Further, the earlier version had said that Tamil Nadu had 370 registered castes, while commenting on "pills and pressures" between different caste groups. The latest version of the judgment says that Tamil Nadu has 184 registered castes..The Court's judgment was passed on a petition filed against Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) minister Udhayanidhi Stalin, State minister PK Sekarbabu and Member of Parliament (MP) A Raja by the Hindu Munnani.The petition was filed in the wake of certain statements made by Stalin on Sanatana Dharma in 2023. On September 2, 2023, at a conference organised by the Tamil Nadu Progressive Writers Artists Association in Chennai, Stalin had said that a few things must not merely be opposed but should be eradicated.“Just like dengue, mosquitoes, malaria, or coronavirus need to be eradicated, we have to eradicate Sanatana,” he had said leading to widespread outrage.Office bearers of a right-wing organisation Hindu Munnani then filed three writ petitions before the High Court taking objection to Stalin's remarks.In their plea, the Hindu Munnani questioned how Stalin could continue in office despite such a statement..The High Court refrained from ordering the removal of Stalin from his post. However, Justice Sumanth said that the comments made by Stalin on Sanatana Dharma were “divisive” and against Constitutional principles and “should not have been made.”.She added that making unverified claims about Sanatana Dharma amounts to spreading misinformation."Those holding constitutional positions can propound only one principle. And that is the principle of constitutionalism. Making unverified claims on Sanatana Dharma tantamounts to spreading misinformation," she said. .In the judgment, Justice Sumanth also agreed that inequities based on caste persist. However, in the earlier version of the judgment, she had added that the caste system, as we know it today, was less than a century old.This has now been changed to state that "categorisation of castes, as we know it today, is a far more recent and modern phenomenon.".[Read updated version of the Judgment].[Read earlier version of Judgment]