Supreme Court pulls up Tamil Nadu for too many defamation cases

Pointing out that the bulk of defamation cases against political leaders have been filed only in Tamil Nadu, the Supreme Court on Monday slammed the state government for filing such cases by granting sanction for prosecution.

A bench of Justices Dipak Misra and Prafulla C. Pant, while making this observation, stayed a batch of defamation cases filed against DMDK leader and actor Vijaykanth for his speech at a public meeting in Dharmapuri criticising the state government for its omissions and commissions.

When counsel G.S. Mani read out the speech of Mr Vijaykanth and said it was only a fair criticism, Justice Misra told counsel for the state Yogesh Khanna, “We find that most of these defamation cases are coming from Tamil Nadu. These criticisms are with reference to the conceptual governance of the state and not individualistic. Why should the state file a case for individuals Defamation case is not meant for this. We will stay the proceedings. You (government) file your reply.”

In his fresh petition Mr Vijaykanth said Tamil Nadu chief minister J. Jayalalithaa and other ministers had filed over 100 defamation cases against him and other leaders. He said the apex court had already stayed the proceedings and had reserved verdict on the constitutional validity of IPC Sections 499 and 500 relating to criminal defamation. He said he had never made any defamatory speech against any women, including the respondent, Ms Jayalalithaa, in his entire personal and public life.

However, as the Leader of the Opposition he was duty-bound to criticise her mal-governance and corruption in the government, he said. The state government, contrary to CrPC Section 199 (4), granted sanction for the public prosecutor to file a defamation case on behalf of the chief minister against the petitioner without understanding the content of the alleged defamatory speech. The principal sessions judge, Dharmapuri, on November 24 had issued summons for his appearance. Hence the present petition for stay of all further proceedings.