Tamil Nadu court grants bail to publisher Badri Seshadri

A local court on Tuesday granted bail to publisher Badri Seshadri, who was arrested on July 29 for his “provocative remarks” against Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud, after rejecting a request by Perambalur District Police to take him under its custody.

Seshadri was produced before the munsif-cum-judicial magistrate, Kunnam on Tuesday. The judge rejected the police’s request to take the publisher under its custody and granted him bail.

The development came hours after historian Ramchandra Guha and eight eminent personalities from various fields, including Carnatic singer T M Krishna and author Perumal Murugan, wrote to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin demanding that Seshadri be released from jail to uphold the right to expression.

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Seshadri, 58, is the founder of Kizhakku Pathippagam, one of the leading publishing houses in Tamil Nadu, and is a regular on Tamil television and YouTube channels.

The letter signed by writers Ambai, Paul Zacharia, Perumal Murugan, musician T M Krishna, historian A R Venkatachalapathy, subaltern historian Stalin Rajangam, professor Rajan Krishnan, and publisher Kannan Sundaram said there was no doubt that Seshadri’s outburst deserves unequivocal condemnation.

“However, we strongly believe that arrest is an extreme reaction to such an infringement and goes against the spirit of the constitutional assurance of freedom of expression,” they said in the letter, adding that they believed that the Stalin government was strongly committed to the freedom of expression.

“We expect the Government of Tamil Nadu, which differs vastly from other state governments of the Indian union, to be an exemplary model in this matter,” the eminent personalities said in the letter and reminded Stalin of Periyar’s words “to not heed meaningless words, consider everything rationally, and act in a manner in conformity with reason.”

The FIR said Seshadri, who is a supporter of the BJP, has been booked under Sections 153 (wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot), 153 A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony and 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

In an interview to Aadhan Tamil, a popular YouTube channel, Seshadri had criticized the Supreme Court’s observation that it would be forced to intervene in the Manipur issue if the Centre didn’t act immediately.

The Manipur High Court’s decision to grant Scheduled Tribe status to the Meitei community led to the violence in the north-eastern state, Seshadri said in the interview, and took objection to the Supreme Court intervening in a sensitive issue.

“Let's give a gun to Chandrachud and send him there. Let's see if he can restore peace,” he said in the interview.