Chennai, June 14 -- The Madras high court on Friday ordered notices to police chiefs to register a criminal case against former minister K Ponmudi in a suo motu case for his derogatory speech against Saivites, Vaishnavites and women. Justice P Velmurugan ordered the notices to Tamil Nadu's director general of police (DGP) Shankar Jiwal and Greater Chennai Commissioner of Police A Arun, returnable by June 25. On April 17, justice N Anand Venkatesh of the high court had taken up the case suo motu. Following that on April 27, Ponmudi resigned from the cabinet as minister for forests. Before that chief minister and DMK president MK Stalin sacked Ponmudi from the post of party's deputy general secretary. Ponmudy, a strongman from Villupuram district, is one of the DMK's old hands who entered the Tamil Nadu cabinet for the first time in 1989. His vulgar comments on April 11 during a public meeting led to his downfall and the court pulling him up. The DMK leader had drawn parallels between the Tilak or symbols drawn on the forehead by Shaivites, devotees of the Hindu god Shiva, and Vaishnavites, devotees of Vishnu, and apart from making derogatory comments about women....