The Supreme Court on Thursday gave a big relief to Samajwadi Party leader Swami Prasad Maurya.
The court has stayed criminal proceedings against Tulsidas in a case related to his alleged controversial remarks on Swami Prasad Maurya’s Ramcharitmanas.
A bench of Justices BR Gavai and Sandeep Mehta also issued notice to the Uttar Pradesh government and sought its response in the matter.
While giving the verdict, the court said, “Why are you so sensitive about these things? It is a matter of interpretation.”
SP leader Swami Prasad Maurya had approached the top court challenging the Allahabad High Court order, which rejected his plea seeking direction to quash the legal proceedings in the Pratapgarh district court in the case of Tulsidas’s comments against ‘Ramcharitmanas’. Had done. During the hearing today, Justice Mehta asked the lawyer appearing for Uttar Pradesh, “This is his (Maurya’s) opinion. How is this a crime?”
Former UP minister Maurya has been accused of making statements that some quatrains of Ramcharitmanas insult a large section of the society and hence they should be banned.
Maurya reportedly said that the holy scripture of Hindus (Ramcharitmanas) was written by Tulsidas for self-praise, in which he has many things to say to Dalits, tribals and backward people regarding their castes.
He had reportedly objected to two quatrains of Ramcharitmanas being against women, Dalits, tribals and backward class people.
In November 2023, the Allahabad High Court, after perusing the charge sheet and other documents, found sufficient grounds to establish a prima facie case against him and ruled that Maurya should be tried in a lower court.
The High Court had said that public representatives should avoid such actions which could disturb communal harmony. Following his remarks, sections 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence), 295-A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings) were registered against him. ) etc. FIR was registered.
He was alleged that after his remarks, some other leaders across India unanimously agreed to burn copies of Ramcharitmanas and used derogatory and indecent words towards all Ramcharitmanas, which led to anger and unrest among the public. An atmosphere was created and a feeling of hostility and animosity arose even among different sections of the Hindu religion.