Madras High Court quashes FIR lodged against director PA Ranjith for speech on Cholas, caste system

The Madras High Court recently quashed a first information report (FIR) registered against director PA Ranjith for a speech in which he discussed the caste system during the reign of the Cholas (PA Ranjith v. The Inspector of Police, Thirupananthal Police Station). .Any continuation of the criminal process against Ranjith, will be and is an abuse of the process of law, Justice G Ilangovan of the Court's Madurai Bench held.."Voice of the oppressed is not meant to be oppressed and criminalised. But to be listened, discussed, addressed and remedied," the Court said, reasoning that in the concerned speech, Ranjith was speaking about a system whose ill-effects have been documented by historians.It went to hold,"So making criticism upon Chola era for the present day, though may not be proper, but it does not exceed the limit and right that has been conferred upon him under Article 19 (1)(a) of the Constitution of India. It was not aimed at creating enmity between two groups of people.".The case of the prosecution was that Ranjith addressed a gathering in June 2019 in which he said that because of the Chola era rule, most of the people have become landless. He also stated that the Chola era introduced the Devadasi system, which was the root cause for the present day situation. Ranjith also said that political parties nominate candidates for elections based on caste lines, and that certain sections of society were feeding on cattle, which is revered by other sections of the society.Based on this speech, a police inspector registered a complaint, subsequent to which an FIR under Section 153 (wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot) and Section 153A (promoting enmity, disharmony between different groups) of the Indian Penal Code was registered against the director. He thus moved the High Court to quash this FIR.He argued in his petition that the speech was only an expression of the grievance of the aggrieved persons who suffered at the hands of monarch, and that he never intended to incite violence or enmity between two groups of people. He further argued that he gathered information for the speech from selected and recognized historical works..The Court held that rather than aiming to create enmity between two groups of people as he was accused of doing, what Ranjith expressed "shows only a grievance over the system and beyond that, it cannot be stretched to drag him to face the criminal prosecution."On whether the comment about feeding on sacred cattle was offensive, the Court observed,"This is the order of Indian society, varied culture, food habits etc, beyond that he cannot be visited with the criminal prosecution for having delivered this sort of speech.".As to whether the speech attracted Section 153 and 153A of the IPC, the Court relied on the Supreme Court's recent decision in Patricia Mukhim v. State of Meghalaya and ors. On going through the yardsticks laid down for attracting the said offences in that case, the High Court observed that the speech of the director does not meet the charges. The Court ultimately held,"In view of the above, without any hesitation, we can come to the conclusion that absolutely there was no intention on the part of the petitioner to promote enmity between two groups of people as the context, meaning, purpose, message that he wanted to pass, will show and demonstrate.".The Court thus quashed the proceedings arising out of the FIR filed against Ranjith.Advocate T Lajapathi Roy appeared for Ranjith and Additional Public Prosecutor RM Anbunithi appeared for the respondents. .[Read Judgment]