Justice M.S. Ramesh issued the direction on a petition filed by an advocate clerk seeking a direction to the police to book the actor on charges of disrupting communal harmony.

The Madras High Court on Friday directed the Chennai city police to register a case only if cognizable offences are made out against actor Kamal Haasan for branding people as “Hindu terrorists” in one of the series of articles written by him in a magazine.

Justice M.S. Ramesh issued the direction on a petition filed by an advocate clerk seeking a direction to the police to book the actor on charges of disrupting communal harmony. The petitioner alleged that the actor indulged in a tirade against Hindus by branding them as terrorists.

The petitioner said: “To make a joke of the majority Hindus’ belief and thereby attempting to decry secularism is the attempt by this actor Kamal Haasan [who wants] to spread the poison of violence against Hindus, which he should stop forthwith. Today, he says the Hindus are terrorists. It will be no wonder if the next day he calls the Christians or Muslims directly as terrorists.

“He should understand that no religion preaches violence but basically promotes goodwill with all other religions and also good conduct. But Kamal Haasan appears to divide the peace-loving Tamil population on the basis of religion by creating a myth that Hinduism is a religion of terrorists.”