The Madras High Court, on Tuesday (September 1), set aside the conviction of BJP leader H Raja in a hate speech case for his comments against Periyar and Kanimozhi Karunanidhi.

Justice V Lakshminarayanan allowed two appeals filed by the leader against his conviction by a special court in 2024. The court noted that there was no material to show that any disturbance was caused following Raja's comments.

A detailed order copy is awaited.

In December 2024, the Special Court for Trial of Cases Against MLAs/MPs in Chennai had sentenced BJP's H Raja to 6 months' imprisonment and a fine for his derogatory speech against Periyar and Kanimozhi Karunanidhi. The court had, however, suspended the sentence for 30 days on a request made by Raja's counsel, to allow the party to file an appeal.

The sentence was passed on cases relating to the comments made by Raja in 2018. Raja had tweeted against EV Ramasamy, popularly known as Periyar, saying that the Atheist leader's statues should be broken and also addressing Periyar as a caste fanatic. Raja had also made insensitive remarks against Kanimozhi, calling her the illegitimate child of former TN CM Karunanidhi.

The High Court had previously refused to quash the case and directed the special court to complete the trial in 3 months.

In 2023, when Raja first moved the High Court to quash these FIRs registered against him, Justice Anand Venkatesh observed that Raja's comments hovered around hate speech. The court noted that though every person was entitled to differ from the views, thoughts, and ideologies of Periyar, he could not cross the “Lakshman Rekha” and make statements which directly affected the sentiments of people of Tamil Nadu who follow Periyarism. In Kanimozhi's case, the court noted that Raja's message had a negative connotation and outraged the daughter by portraying her in an insensitive manner.

In April 2024, Raja had moved a second petition to quash the FIR. This attempt was also unsuccessful as the High Court dismissed the plea noting that it lacked merits. The court noted that the grounds raised in the second quash petition were purely factual and had already been canvassed in the previous petition.

Following this, Raja had approached the Supreme Court. Dismissing the SLPs filed by Raja, the bench of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and Prashant Kumar Mishra orally commented on the need for politicians to be circumspect about their public comments.

Case Title: H Raja v The State

Citation: 2026 LiveLaw (Mad) 417

Case No: Crl A 1635 of 2024