The Supreme Court today (22 September) issued notices to Udhayanidhi Stalin, the Tamil Nadu government and several others regarding his remarks calling for the 'eradication of Sanatana Dharma.'

The Court's action comes around 20 days after 262 eminent citizens wrote a letter asking the Chief Justice of India to take suo moto cognisance of the remarks and multiple FIRs were filed against Udhayanidhi.

Savukku Shankar Files Plea For Criminal Contempt Case Against DMK's RS Bharathi; Advocate General Says Not Applicable

Advocate General R Shunmugasundaram has refused to initiate a criminal contempt case against DMK organising secretary, RS Bharathi for his comments in which he had said that Justice N Anand Venkatesh was only undertaking suo moto revisions in cases against DMK leaders.

The petition was filed by political commentator Savukku Shankar.

Shunmugasundaram stated that in his comments, Bharathi had also mentioned going to the Supreme Court and thus in no way had lowered the image of the judiciary.

Justice Venkatesh too had earlier refused to initiate contempt proceedings against Bharathi.

If You Believe You Have A Good Case, Why Not Go To Supreme Court Instead Of Asking Me To Recuse: Justice N Anand Venkatesh

While hearing a plea by Revenue minister KKSSR Ramachandran, asking him to recuse from further hearing of the suo moto revision of his discharge in a disproportionate assets case, Justice N Anand Venkatesh of the Madras High Court asked why was he being asked to recuse and no one had challenged his decision to undertake suo moto revision in the Supreme Court.

He said that if the petitioners had a good case, they should go to the Apex court.

Earlier, he had refused to recuse from a similar case against Higher Education minister K Ponmudy.

Read more about these cases here and here.

Senthil Balaji To Remain In Judicial Custody As Bail Petition Dismissed

The Principal Sessions court on 20 September dismissed the bail petition filed by minister Senthil Balaji, who was arrested on 14 June for his alleged role in the cash-for-jobs scam during his tenure as Transport minister.

The court held that his medical condition was treatable in the prison hospital. It also accepted the ED's arguments that he could influence witnesses and tamper with evidence if released.

His judicial custody ends on 29 September.

AIADMK's Jayakumar Says 'No Alliance With BJP'

AIADMK Organising Secretary D Jayakumar has said that there is no alliance with the BJP and the issue of alliance would be discussed only at the time of elections.

He said this after BJP state president K Annamalai had spoken about an incident involving Muthuramalinga Thevar and former chief minister CN Annadurai at the Madurai Meenakshi temple in 1956 during the party's protest demanding the resignation of HRCE minister P Sekar Babu.

Read this article by K Balakumar, on why a split might be good for both parties.

ED Releases Statement About Raids On Sand Mafia

In its statement, the ED stated that it raided 34 locations of which 8 were sand mining yards. Premises of people involved in the sand mining business like S Ramachandran, K Rathinam, Karikalan, an audito P Shanmugaraj and officials of the Water Resources department were among those searched.

While Rs 12.82 crore was frozen, unaccounted cash of Rs 2.33 crore and gold weighing 1024.6 grams was seized.

DVAC Raids Former AIADMK MLA In Disproportionate Assets Case

The Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) on 13 September raided premises of former AIADMK MLA from T Nagar, B Sathyanarayanan. He has been accused of accumulating disproportionate assets to the tune of Rs 2.64 crore.

The DVAC's action comes in the backdrop of suo moto revisions of a number of cases of similar nature involving DMK leaders like K Ponmudy, Thangam Thennarasu, KKSSR Ramachandran, I Periyasamy and AIADMK's O Panneerselvam (who was expelled in 2022) and B Valarmathi.

BJP's Ravi Shankar Prasad Responds To Ponmudy's 'I.N.D.I.A Alliance Formed To Oppose Sanatana Dharma' Remark, Says Intentions Now Out In Open

At a press conference in the BJP national headquarters regarding Ponmudy's remark, senior MP and former Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad came down heavily on the I.N.D.I.A alliance and asked if opposition to Sanatana Dharma was part of its 'Common Minimum Programme'. He also asked if they had the courage to make similar comments on other religions.

Annamalai Says DMK Stands For 'Dengue' 'Malaria' 'Kosu' In Rebuttal To CM Stalin

In a long video rebuttal, Annamalai responded to CM MK Stalin's statement saying that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had spoken about Udhayanidhi without understanding what he had said. He said that if there was something to be eradicated from Tamil Nadu, it is the DMK, which stands for 'Dengue', 'Malaria' and 'Kosu.'

Dinamalar Headline On CM's Breakfast Scheme Irks DMK; Party Criticises Brahmins And Sanatana Dharma; Supporters Burn Copies Of Newspaper

Chief Minister MK Stalin and the ruling DMK criticised Brahmins and Sanatana Dharma because of a controversial headline and sub-heading by Dinamalar, a Tamil newspaper, regarding the recently launched Chief Minister's Breakfast Scheme.

A number of DMK members and supporters criticised the article and burnt copies of the newspaper. Boards and banners of the newspaper were damaged in various places.

Setback For OPS In Madras High Court

A Madras High Court Division Bench of Justices R Mahadevan and Mohammed Shaffiq today (25 August) refused to intervene in the expulsion of O Panneerselvam (OPS) and his associates, R Vaithilingam, Paul Manoj Pandian and JCD Prabhakar, from the AIADMK in July 2022 and the subsequent election of Edappadi Palaniswami (EPS) as the party's general secretary.

The judgement comes days after the AIADMK's state conference in Madurai on 20 August.

Annamalai Says He Will Leave Politics If Udhayanidhi Clears UPSC Prelims Or TNPSC Group 4 Exams

BJP state president K Annamalai said that he would leave politics if Udhayanidhi Stalin resigned as an MLA and passed the UPSC Prelims exam or a TNPSC Group 4 exam without any form of fixing.

Udhayanidhi had said, “Resign from your post. Stand elections in any constituency, go meet the people and tell them about your ideology, they will throw slippers at you. If you win, then I’ll listen to you and even support NEET."

We will update this dashboard regularly. Do stay tuned!