'Only Said What Was Stated In Manusmriti': Madras High Court Quashes Case Against MP Thol Thirumavalan For Alleged Comments On Hindu Women

Justice P Velmurugan noted that Thirumavalan had only spoken about what has been stated in the Manu Smriti and thus offence was not made out. Thus, noting that nothing was available to prosecute Thirumavalan, the court was inclined to quash the complaint on the file of District Munisff-cum-Judicial Magistrate, Peraiyur, Madurai.

“What has been stated in the book "Manu Smriti" had been only made as his speech and in the facts and circumstances of this case, this Court does not find that any of the offences as alleged by the de-facto complainant is made out, since prima-facie, nothing is available on record to prosecute the complaint filed by the respondent herein. At this juncture, it has to be stated that there is no intention for the petitioner to commit any hate speech and is not affecting anyone and his speech is only in general parlance,” the court said.

The complaint was filed by Dr Vedha who stated that Thirumavalan, through his speech, had lowered the image of women in public and thereby had humiliated the feelings of Hindu women. Thus, he filed a complaint before the District-cum-Judicial Magistrate who took cognisance of the same and summoned Thirumavalan. A case was registered for alleged offences under Sections 120 B, 295 A, 298, 500, and 509 of IPC along with Section 67 of the Information Technology Act.

Thirumavalan submitted that the alleged speech was made while he was participating in an international conference where he was speaking on “Periyar and Indian Politics”. He submitted that in his speech, he had spoken about how the women were mentioned in Manusmriti and did not utter any word lowering the modestly of any woman other than what was written in Manu Smriti.

He also submitted that he had no intention to make any speech degrading the reputation of Indian Women especially Hindu women. He added that what was said by him was not a personal invention or a speech created by himself and that the respondent complainant did not get personally affected by the speech.

The court agreed with the submissions and noted that the speech would not attract the offences alleged. The court noted that the complainant had not stated if they had referred to Manu Smriti after the speech and found nothing as spoken by Thirumavalan. The court thus noted that there was no intention for Thirumavalan to commit any hate speech and the same did not affect anyone.

Thus, the court allowed the plea and quashed the case.

Counsel for the Petitioner: M/s. S. Deepika

Case Title: Thol.Thirumavalavan v. Dr.V.Vedha @ Dhamodharan

Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (Mad) 2

Case No: Crl.O.P.(MD).No.9663 of 2023