CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Monday said politicians should maintain self-restraint while criticising others. The court also said quashing criminal cases does not give politicians the licence to blatantly accuse others without material evidence. The court made the observations while quashing three defamation cases moved against DMK chief MK Stalin by the AIADMK government.

Justice N Sathish Kumar made the observations while hearing a plea moved by Stalin challenging the complaint made by the government for his alleged derogatory statements against Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami connecting him in the Kodanad estate robbery and murder case.

During the hearing on Tuesday, Public Prosecutor A Natarajan contended that Stalin was making baseless allegations against the Chief Minister despite restraining orders passed by the court.Recording the submissions, the court said people like the petitioners, who are lawmakers, must follow self-restraint while making statements in public.

The cases were taken up for final hearing of a suo motu PIL petition initiated by the first bench of the court headed by Chief Justice A mreshwar Pratap Sahi to monitor and review cases pending against MPs and MLAs.