Chennai: The Madras high court has stayed all further proceedings against actors K. Dhanush and Iswarya Rajesh, pending before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Egmore, relating to the Tamil film ‘Kakka Muttai”.
Justice P. N. Prakash passed the order while admitting petitions filed by Dhanush and Iswarya Rajesh.
Manivannan filed a criminal defamation complaint against Dhanush and Iswarya Rajesh before CMM, Egmore alleging that in a scene in the film, an artist depicting herself as an old woman uttered some derogatory remarks against an advocate character. Aggrieved, Dhanush and Iswarya Rajesh filed the present petitions to quash the proceedings before the CMM.
In their petitions, they contended that there was no harmful imputation as alleged by the complainant. The right of film maker to make and exhibit his film was a part of his fundamental right of Freedom of Speech and expression under Article 19 (1) (a) of the Constitution. The Magistrate while taking cognizance of the complaint must satisfy that there a prima facie case had been made out on the material produced by the complainant. The allegations had been made only with an ulterior motive to make illegal gain out of such complaint. The dialogue along with the visualization would explicitly speak about the character in the film and there was no imputation to harm or defame anyone.
