The Madurai branch of the High Court yesterday ordered the dismissal of the case against BJP supporter YouTuber Maridas within 5 days.
Madurai Co. Maridas from Puducherry. He had posted a comment on his Twitter page in a bid to disturb the public peace in the state over the death of the commander-in-chief of the three forces. Madurai on him DMK Technical Division Administrator Balakrishnan lodged a complaint with the Cyber Crime Police on December 9.
Maridas was arrested by the police. Seeking to quash this case, Maridas filed the petition in the High Court branch. His petition has been heard for the last 2 days before Judge GR Swaminathan.
Additional Advocate General Veera Kathiravan argued during the hearing yesterday that the three forces Maridas has posted an unwanted comment regarding the death of the commander. He said his record was against the Tamil Nadu government, disturbing the peace in the state and inciting violence.
Maridas’ lawyer Ananthapadmanabhan argues that Maridas has been critical of the Tamil Nadu government. He said he was arrested to keep him quiet. Complainant’s attorney, Pukalkanthi, said the case should not be dismissed.
The judge then issued an order: The rights enshrined in Article 19 (1) (a) of the Constitution regarding freedom of expression for the media apply to YouTubers and commentators on public issues.
Nobel Prize-winning Turkish novelist Orkan Pamuk says there are two types of novelists: those who comment without thinking about the consequences and those who write after thinking about the consequences.
In my view petitioner Maridas seems to be the first person on the list. He first posted the comment and then deleted the post.
Therefore, the case registered against the petitioner under sections 505 (1) and (2), 124 (a), 504, 153 (a) of the Indian Penal Code is not valid. The judge ordered that the case against him be dismissed.
He has been arrested in one case and Maridas is in Punjab Jail.
‘Drag to the police’
Commenting on this, BJP executive Narayanan Tirupati said: The DMK government should apologize for making false allegations, seeking revenge and acting anti-democratic as it could not bear the criticism. Similarly, the BJP should stop retaliating against many following false allegations. In addition, Chief Minister Stalin should order the Tamil Nadu Police to arrest those who post anti-national remarks on social media and those who make defamatory posts about the Prime Minister. He said that realizing that the verdict was a drag on the Tamil Nadu Police, such activities should be stopped.
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