Madras HC dismisses HCP filed by Guru

Chennai, Nov 19: The Madras High Court on Tuesday, Nov 19 upheld the order of detention under the National Security Act of J Gurunathan alias Guru, Vanniar Sangam president and former MLA. In its order dismissing a Habeas Corpus Petition (HCP) filed by Mr. Guru, who is undergoing detention in Central Prison, Tiruchi and seeking to quash the Ariyalur District Collector's proceedings and direct the respondents to produce him before the court and set him at liberty, a Division Bench comprising Justice Elipe Dharma Rao and Justice S Tamilvanan said it found no illegality or irregularity in the entire procedure followed by the Detaining Authority.
"We find no ground to cause our interference into such a warranting order of detention passed against the petitioner, who has indulged in a grave offence of provoking the people to erupt in communal violence and promoting enmity, hatred and ill-will between different classes of society, breaching the peace and tranquillity, which will have the impact of shaking national unity," the Judges said.

Mr. Guru was arrested at the Central Prison, Tiruchi, on July 6 for allegedly making a provocative speech at the district general body meeting of the PMK at Ariyalur. He had earlier been arrested in connection with another case. He was detained under the NSA on July 10. Challenging the detention order, he filed the HCP. The petitioner contended that the meeting was purely indoor. The authorities argued that press reporters had attended the meeting and it was nothing but a public meeting.

The Bench held that it was a public meeting and said the petitioner had not denied his participation and even his speech was published in newspapers. His speech was abnormal, inflammatory, fuelling passions, inciting and intimidatory.

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