The Madras High Court Chief Justice, Sanjay V. Gangapurwala, has constituted a three-judge bench comprising Justices D. Krishnakumar, C.V. Karthikeyan, and P. Dhanabal, to hear a writ petition filed in 2017 challenging a 2015 ban imposed by the State government on a Tamil book titled ‘Madurai Veeranin Unmai Varalaru’ (Madurai Veeran’s true story).
The special bench is slated to hear the case on Friday. The constitution of the three-judge Bench was necessitated in view of Section 96 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which states that an order of forfeiture passed under Section 95 of the Cr.P.C. could be challenged only before a special bench comprising three judges of the High Court concerned.
In the 2017 writ petition, the book’s author, Kulandai alias Kulandairaj, challenged a Government Order (GO) issued by the Home Department on August 19, 2015, for forfeiting all copies of the book published by Aadhi Tamizhar Thozhilalar Peravai on the ground that it contained certain offending portions that could incite public unrest.
Though such a challenge should be made within two months of the forfeiture order as per Section 96 of the Cr.P.C., the author claimed to have learned about the GO only after two years. He also told the court that nearly 2,000 copies of his book had already been sold, and hence there was no point in the government seeking to impose a ban on it.
The case has been heard by different judges since 2017, and they have called upon the government to submit the complaints received against the book. Finally, when it was listed for hearing before Justice Anita Sumanth in February this year, the judge was apprised of the offending portions related to the Aryan invasion, the practice of the Devadasi system, and so on.
Special Government Pleader Veda Bagath Singh also told the court that the author had accused the makers of the former Chief Minister and actor M.G. Ramachandran starrer ‘Madurai Veeran’ of having twisted the history, though Madurai Veeran actually belonged to the Arunthathiyar community but married a caste Hindu woman.
After recording his submissions, Justice Sumanth referred the matter to the Chief Justice on June 14 this year for constitution of the three judge bench as required under Cr.P.C.
