The observation was made by a high court's vacation bench of justices P N Raveendran and P V Asha, while hearing a plea by Kerala resident George Vattukulam, who has sought a court- monitored probe into the allegations that Mani made the "sexually-loaded, anti-women statements" at a public meeting.
While hearing the plea against Mani, the court asked the state counsel if the Kerala police chief was not aware of it.
The state counsel opposed the plea, contending that the petition was not maintainable as the petitioner ought to have approached the police or a magisterial court for a probe into the matter.
The counsel denied that the minister made any derogatory remarks against women. He added he was mentioning about media persons during his speech.
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At this, the high court observed that the media persons too have their fundamental rights.
The petitioner has alleged that Mani had used abusive language against women leaders and activists of 'Pembilai Orumai,' a group of plantation workers in Idukki district who had organised a month-long stir in Munnar last year.
"The respondent is a habitual offender and regularly uses abusive language and sexually-loaded statements especially against the women," the petition said.
Mani, however, had refuted the allegation against him on the floor of the state assembly. He had told the assembly that he had not used any offensive language against women.