Chennai: The Madras high court has stayed all proceedings pending before the Principal Sessions Court against the editor and publisher of the Times of India, an English daily, and BJP leader Dr Subramaniam Swamy, in connection with a defamation case filed by Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa. Justice V. Ramasubramanian has granted interim stay on the petitions, from the editor, Sunil Nair and publisher, S.Santhanagopal, which sought to quash the defamation complaint. The judge has also dispensed with their personal appearance before the Principal Sessions court and ordered notice, returnable by three weeks, to the Union and State Governments.
In their petitions, they submitted that the news report published in the Times of India on September 4, 2014 did not cast any allegation against the Chief Minister, but was reporting the contents of a letter from Dr. Subramanian Swamy to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which was made public by Dr. Swamy himself at a press conference. The news report had also diligently quoted the response of the Chief Minister to Dr Swamy’s comments.
