By IANS
Chennai : The Madras High Court Thursday adjourned to next week hearing on a plea seeking the removal of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi for his remarks against Hindu god Ram.
The petition was filed by one Ramathangarasu, president of the Tamil Nadu unit of the Bharatiya Jana Shakti Party (BJSP), Uma Bharti’s outfit. It was heard by a division bench of Justices S.J. Mukhopadhaya and N. Paul Vasanthakumar.
The BJSP activist said in his plea that Karunanidhi had “challenged the very existence of Lord Ram” and had called him an ordinary citizen, inferior even to an engineer.
Karunanidhi had deliberately spoken “in order to tarnish the image of Lord Ram. His speech directly affected the feelings of a majority of Hindus and failed to uphold the constitution. Being a chief minister, Karunanidhi should not have criticised Lord Ram,” the petitioner said.
Meanwhile, two other separate petitions have been filed in the Madras High Court seeking removal of T.R. Baalu from the union cabinet.
Advocate R. Balasubramanian filed the suits seeking to initiate contempt proceedings against Baalu for “speaking against the judiciary” and fasting without court permission.
The apex court had stayed a DMK-sponsored bandh called on Monday to press for the Sethusamudram project. However, Karunanidhi and his ministers as well as party MP and central minister Baalu observed a fast that day.
Balasubramanian sought a direction to the prime minister for recommending to the president to sack Baalu.
He said that the DMK had “ignored the interim stay on the Sethusamudram project” and had led a bandh on Oct 1.
In New Delhi, the AIADMK filed a petition in the Supreme Court for initiating contempt of court proceedings against M. Karunanidhi, T.R. Baalu, other DMK ministers and top bureaucrats for enforcing a shutdown in the state despite a ban order.
Besides Karunanidhi and Baalu, the AIADMK petition also sought action against Tamil Nadu Transport Minister K.N. Nehru, Chief Secretary L.K. Tripathi, Director General of Police P. Rajendran and Transport Secretary D. Sarangi.
The Supreme Court had Monday threatened to dismiss the government in Tamil Nadu, where a DMK sponsored unofficial shutdown was in place against the Sethusamudram shipping canal project despite the court’s orders banning the protest.