High Court offers guidelines to handle situations of conflicting views
CHENNAI: Pulling up the authorities for not handling properly, the issue relating to the Tamil novel “Madhorubagan” authored by Perumal Murugan, the Madras high court has suggested guidelines to deal with situations arising from conflict of views and directed the authorities to strictly adhere to it. A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana said, “The object is only to make the authorities more aware of this emerging area of conflict so that necessary precautions are taken to nip it in the bud and not to let it assume a larger proportion of a law and order scenario, yet at the same time, fully protecting the freedom of expression of authors and artistes”.
The Bench directed the State government to constitute within three months, an expert body to deal with situations arising from such conflict of views. The panel should consist of qualified persons in the branch of creative literature and art so that an independent opinion was forthcoming, keeping in mind the law evolved by the judiciary. “Such an expert body or panel of experts would obviate the kind of situations we have seen in the present case. In such matter of art and culture, the issue cannot be left to the police authorities or the local administration alone, especially when there is a spurt in such conflicts”, the Bench said.
The court said there was bound to be a presumption in favour of free speech and expression unless a court of law finds it otherwise as falling within the domain of a reasonable restriction. This presumption must be kept in mind if there were complaints against publications, art, drama, film, song, poem, cartoons or any other creative expressions. The State’s responsibility to maintain law and order would not permit any compulsion on the artistes concerned to withdraw from his/her stand and non-State players cannot be allowed to determine what was permissible and what was not, the Bench said.
The Bench said the State has to ensure proper police protection where such authors and artistes come under attack from a section of society. Regular programmes need to be conducted for sensitising officials over matters dealing with such conflicts of artistic and literary appreciation, the court said.
