Hearing a PIL filed by writers, HC expressed concern over extra-judicial groups wielding power to decide what authors can write and what they cannotThe Madras High Court on Tuesday included embattled author Perumal Murugan as party in a public interest litigation (PIL) and decided to hear his version of the events that led to his recent decision to call it quits as a writer following protests by saffron outfits against his novel Madhorubagan (One Part Woman).Arm-twisted and forced to apologise by protesting fringe groups and government officials, Murugan announced the the death of the writer in him through a Facebook post on January 13. Since then many writers and academicians have come out in support of Murugan. The court was dealing with an PIL filed by S Tamilselvan, president of TN Progressive Writers' and Artists Association, seeking to declare as null and void the apology secured from him by the authorities in Namakkal at a peace meeting recently.The petition said the `peace meeting' organised by the government officials exceeded the power given to them by the Constitution.A first bench comprising chief justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and justice MM Sundresh observed the court's concern over extra-judicial groups wielding power to decide what is right and what is not right and asking authors what to right and what not to.The bench included the author as party in the case and said the court would issue notice to Murugan so that he could narrate the sequence of events which led him to call it quits. The petitioner alleged that the district administration of Namakkal which convened a `peace meeting' on January 12 following protests against the novel was threatened, coerced and forced to tender an unconditional apology despite the author's earlier offer to delete the objectionable portions from the novel.Tamilselvan said that the growing intolerance and forcible methods to silence the writers ran contrary to the constitutional guarantee of freedom of expression given to the citizens. Meanwhile writers and activists in Kerala led by writer NS Madhavan have been carrying out a mass reading of the novel. The mass reading was held at KochiMuziris Biennale on January 17 and at Thrissur on Monday.Perumal Murugan is a 48-year-old author and Tamil professor at the Government Arts College in Namakkal. Murugan announced that he would stop writing and withdraw all his novels, poems and other writings with immediate effect after controversy arose over his book Madhorubagan, which is set around 100 years ago and at the time of the annual festival in Tiruchengode. The deity of the temple is Shiva in the form of Ardhanariswara (Half woman, half man). Madhorubagan is the Tamil name for Ardhanariswara. In the novel, protagonists Kali and Ponna remain childless for 12 years after marriage. After trying out all rituals, the woman, under pressure from family members, finally agrees to have sex with a stranger as was the custom in the temple.