Saturday, 1st November 2014
BY S VENKAT NARAYAN Our Special Correspondent
NEW DELHI, October 30: The Indian Supreme Court on Thursday suspended defamation proceedings in five cases initiated by the Tamil Nadu government against senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Dr Subramanian Swamy for making critical observations against the state’s former chief minister Jayaram Jayalalithaa.
An apex court bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra suspended the defamation proceedings before a Chennai court, and also issued notice to the central government, the Tamil Nadu government and Jayalalithaa. The notices are returnable in six weeks.
Swamy, who appeared in person, told the court that Section 499 and Section 500 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) relating to defamation imposed unreasonable restrictions on the freedom of speech and expression guaranteed under Article 19 (1)(a) of the Constitution.
On September 16, then Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa initiated her fifth criminal defamation case against Dr Swamy for his statement against her on a social networking site. It was also the third defamation case filed by her against Swamy in one week.
Swami had tweeted that the Jayalalithaa government had given permission to hold a memorial meeting for a LTTE leader in the state. The next day, the department of public (law and order-H) issued a GO stating that Dr Swamy’s statement was "per se defamatory against the chief minister in respect of her conduct in the discharge of public functions."
Taking note of the GO, S Shanmugavelayuthan, public prosecutor in the Madras high court, filed a petition stating that it was a fit case for according sanction to the city public prosecutor to initiate defamation proceedings.
The Chennai city public prosecutor ML Jegan filed a criminal defamation petition in the principal district and sessions court. He said the post was "malicious, defamatory and directly impeached the reputation of the chief minister."
The post, which had been "released in the electronic media," was "without any basis and verification." The petition also pointed out that the statement had been retweeted 181 times.
Jayalalithaa has since been found guilty in a corruption case late last month. This automatically meant that she ceased to be the chief minister. She is currently on bail, and confined to her home in Chennai.
From : http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=113243
