Madras HC declines to take contempt action against Tamil actor Suriya

The Madras High Court bench observed that actor Suriya’s NEET remarks do not amount to contempt or a level of criminal contempt but termed them "absolutely unnecessary".

Invoking the right to free speech, the Madras High Court Friday refused to initiate contempt proceedings against actor Suriya for his criticism of the judiciary over the NEET issue, but suggested that his comments could have been made in a more moderate tone and informed him of the work done by courts during the pandemic.

In the wake of suicides by three medical aspirants on the day before the medical entrance, Suriya had said last Saturday: “Courts are delivering justice through video-conferencing due to the fear of the life-threatening coronavirus, (but) are ordering students to fearlessly go and write the exams.”

Taking umbrage over this, Madras High Court judge, Justice S M Subramaniam, wrote to Chief Justice A P Sahi seeking contempt proceedings against the Tamil star.

On Friday, the bench of Chief Justice Sahi and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy said it entirely agreed with Advocate-General Vijay Narayan, who declined to give his go-ahead for criminal contempt of court proceedings.

Presenting the act of calling a spade a spade and that of making unrestrained speech as two different dimensions, the bench said: “The right to freedom of speech that includes fair criticism is guaranteed under the Indian Constitution.”

📣 The Indian Express is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@indianexpress) and stay updated with the latest headlines

For all the latest India News, download Indian Express App.