New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday slammed Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa for foisting criminal defamation complaints against her political opponents to stifle fair criticism of her government.
A bench of Justices Dipak Misra and Rohinton Nariman, hearing petitions filed by DMDK leader Vijaykanth and his wife Premalatha challenging the defamation complaints, told senior counsel Rakesh Diwedi, appearing for Ms Jayalalithaa, “You cannot use the state machinery to file defamation cases against political opponents.”
G.S. Mani, counsel for Vijaykanth, told the Bench that defamation cases are being filed against political opponents even for fair criticism. The Bench issued fresh notice to Ms Jayalalithaa seeking her response returnable on September 21.
“There has to be a healthy democracy. Here, it is a case of state public prosecutor filing the cases. The state is controlling the prosecution. You must face criticism if you are a public figure. You have a right to be criticised. But here you are utilising the state machinery. If you want, you can have a one-to-one fight.” The Bench said Ms Jayalalihtaa can not use the defamation law to settle personal scores. It also observed that Tamil Nadu was the only state that used the government machinery to fight defamation cases as there are no complaints from other states.
Justice Misra after perusing the list of 213 criminal cases filed by the State during 2011 to 2016, said, “You can not slap defamation cases on people for reporting on the chief minister’s health condition. As a public figure, you (Jayalalithaa) must face criticism. You fight on a personal level.”
The Bench noted that reporting on the CM’s vacations, criticising her government for water scarcity or not fulfilling poll promises have all been termed derogatory. The 70-page list submitted by the Tamil Nadu government titled the “list of defamation cases filed by the Government of Tamil Nadu for defamatory speeches made against the Chief Minister from May 16, 2011 to July 28, 2016”. It has admitted that during the past five years it had filed as many as 213 defamation cases against political opponents, including 69 against DMK, 55 against the media, 42 against DMDK (which includes 28 against Mr. Vijaykanth), five against Subramanian Swamy, four against DMK M. Karuna-nidhi, three against leader of opposition M.K. Stalin, four against Congress leader E.V.K.S. Elangovan and nine against PMK.
