Ban on Perumal Murugan book illegal: Madras High Court
FollowIn a significant decision that strengthens freedom of speech in Tamil Nadu, the Madras High today dismissed all cases against Tamil writer Perumal Murugan, whose novel Mathorubhagan (One Part Woman) was deemed by some caste groups as slanderous and offensive.
Groups claiming to be offended by his work extracted a written apology from him and demanded that his entire body of work be pulped. Perumal Murugan was forced to delete the controversial portions from his book and withdraw the book from store shelves, under instructions from a body called 'peace committee' patched together by the Namakkal District administration.
Perumal Murugan's fictional work described a festival at Tiruchengode town's Ardhanareeshwarar temple where consensual sex between men and women, not married to each other had ritual sanction.
This, some residents of Tiruchengode, and members of some caste group thought defamatory and went to the Madras High Court.
The Tamil Nadu Progressive Writers and Artists Association went to court challenging the treatment meted to Murugan
Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Puspha Sathyanarayana ruled that the 'peace committee' decision would not be binding on Perumal Murugan. According to the ruling, there would be no ban on Mathorubhagan, or need for the writer to revise of withdraw copies of the novel from the market. The court stressed on the need to protect the rights of writers and condemned the manner in which Murugan was made to apologise.
