Observing that taking offence has become a fashion now, the Madras High Court on Thursday quashed criminal proceedings against the 97-year-old writer K Rajanarayanan alias Ki.Ra for allegedly insulting the Scheduled Caste community by using the term 'Avan'.
Justice G R Swaminathan of the court's Madurai bench allowed the plea filed by the writer seeking quashing of proceedings against him pending in a magistrate court under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and IPC section 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke the breach of peace).
Usage of the term "Avan" by great Tamil poets like Nammalvar and Manickavasagar would indicate that the expression was not an insulting connotation, the judge said.
"On the other hand, it indicates a high degree of intimacy. The remarks of the petitioner, in an interview to a magazine, by no stretch of imagination can be construed as an intentional insult. The magazine had interviewed the petitioner. It posed certain questions. The petitioner did not have any intention to hurt any one let alone members of the SC community," the judge said.
The courts must remember that whenever they play into the hands of people like the complainant, the image of the judiciary as well as the nation takes a beating, Justice Swaminathan said.
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"Taking offence has now become a fashion... The magistrate will have to see if the allegations made in the complaint were serious and there is enough ground for proceeding against the accused. The magistrate will have to see if the proceedings had been maliciously instituted with an ulterior motive.
"Every time police or magistrate receive such complaints, they must dust their knowledge of law relating to the freedom of speech."
Magistrates and police who have registered the complaint must realise and they must be on guard to adopt a nuanced approach in such cases, the judge said.
One marker of a civilised society is as to how it treats and respects its artists, writers and intellectuals, Justice Swaminathan said.
"Ki.Ra is 97 years old. He lost his wife recently. He is said to have suffered a stroke. Closing criminal proceedings initiated against him is the minimum courtesy the system owes," the judge said and quashed proceedings against him.
According to the court, elementary ingredients of the offences levelled against the writer are wholly absent.
"The very institution of the impugned prosecution is an abuse of legal process," the judge said.
The complainant, who initiated proceedings against the writer, had objected to the use of terms "Dalit" and "Avan.
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