Madras High Court closes contempt proceedings initiated against Keezhaikaatru publishers for reported book against Justice G.R. Swaminathan

The Madras High Court on Wednesday closed the suo motu contempt of court proceedings initiated against Keezhaikattru Publishers after Greater Chennai City Police reported that no book titled ‘Thirupparankundram Issue: Is G.R. Swaminathan a judge or a RSS Rowdy?’ was published and sold at the Chennai Book Fair 2026 organised by Booksellers and Publishers Association of South India (BAPASI).

First Division Bench of Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice G. Arul Murugan also closed a writ petition which sought a direction to the police to seize all those books. The petitioner P. Naveenprasad of Vellore had relied upon a flyer circulated widely on the social media claiming the book would be available for sale at stall numbers 172 and 173 of the Chennai Book Fair 2026.

Passing interim orders in the case on January 7, 2026, the Chief Justice’s Bench had observed: “On the face of it, the proposed release of the book as titled and shown in the petition is highly derogatory and abusive and crosses all limits and needs to be dealt with stern hands by the court.” The Bench directed the police to ensure that no such book, tending to scandalise the judge, was published and sold.

In compliance of the order, Additional Advocate General J. Ravindran on Wednesday told the court the police had conducted a search at the Chennai Book Fair 2026 between 4:30 pm and 5:30 pm on January 7 and found stall numbers 172 and 173 had been allotted to Jeeva Pathipagam and Iyagriva Publishers and not to Keezhaikaatru Publishers who had occupied stall numbers 174 and 175.

The AAG also submitted an action taken report filed by Saidapet Inspector of Police K. Settu, under whose territorial jurisdiction the book fair was conducted, and the Inspector had said: “Thereby, I conducted a thorough search of the said stalls and found that no objectionable books, caricature including pictorial representation and no objectionable books were found in any electronic devices (sic).”

Also stating to have inquired the publishers about the book and the social media posts through which it had been publicised, the Inspector said: “In response, Keezhaikaatru Publishers stated that upon receiving an objection from BAPASI on January 3, 2026 Facebook Post stated that they are stop selling all the books including pictorial representation relating to this issue. (sic)”

The action taken report further read: “The president/head of BAPASI also furnished a written statement on January 19, 2026 confirming that no such book was published or sold in any of the stalls at the book rair… Further, I state that from January 7 to till the completion of the book fair on January 21, 2026, I continuously monitored the activities of book fair. No such books was published are (sic) sold in the above stalls.”