NEW DELHI: Supreme Court has slammed Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa for misusing the defamation law and said that public figures must face criticism. It said that public figures cannot use defamation law to throttle democracy and criticism of policy could not be a ground for defamation.
The SC also reissued a notice to the CM for alleged misuse of defamation laws. The next hearing will take place on September 22. Chastising her, the SC said, "(You) can't use defamation case(s) to throttle democracy. This is not done." It added that the Tamil Nadu government should concentrate on good governance instead of filing defamation cases against those who criticise it. The observations were made while hearing a petition filed by DMDK chief A Vijayakanth who sought the quashing of defamation case filed against him by the Tamil Nadu government.
The Apex Court said that "a government cannot be seen to use state machinery to file criminal defamation cases against political opponents." The bench comprising of Justices Dipak Misra and RF Nariman said, "There has to be tolerance to criticism... defamation cases cannot be used by a political counter weapon. Cases for criticising the government or bureaucrats create a chilling effect."
Earlier, the Madras High Court had stayed all further proceedings in the 14 criminal defamation cases pending against Vijayakanth in various courts. Justice PN Prakash had granted interim relief to the actor who, along with his wife, had filed a petition to quash the cases registered against them for their speeches and statements against the Tamil Nadu government. Faced with cases and summons, he had first moved the apex court challenging the constitutionality of Section 499 of CrPC and Section 199 of the IPC. Jaya government and her party AIADMK have filed hundreds of criminal defamation cases against all kinds of people, including the media and opposition leaders across the state.
