The Madras High Court on Wednesday stayed all defamation cases filed against senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy by the Government of Tamil Nadu. Justice PN Prakash stayed the series of defamation cases filed by the Special Public Prosecutor of the Tamil Nadu Government in 2014 and 2015 against Swamy for his reported tweets and statements. The contention of the was SPP was that the tweets and statements by the senior BJP leader were defamatory to chief minister J Jayalalithaa.
One of the defamatory cases filed by Ml Jegan, city public prosecutor was against the twitter comment made by Swamy on the health condition of Jayalalithaa. The other cases were against statements issued by Swamy .
A case filed in September 2014 dealt with the comment made by Swamy that Jayalalithaa was being soft on the lTTE, the dreaded Tamil terrorist network. The comment was in response to Tamil Nadu Government granting permission to one of the frontal organisations of the lTTE to hold memorial meeting for Dileepan, a lTTE terrorist who was killed in an encounter with the Sri lankan Army.
The third case too was against a comment by Swamy on twitter on the assets of Jayalalithaa. It was alleged by the government that his charge that the fishing boats seized by Sri lankan Navy belonged to a close confidante of the Chief Minister.
Swamy in his petition to Madras High Court had contended that the Government of Tamil Nadu had no locus standi in the defamation cases. “My remarks and comments were against Jayalalithaa and not against the Government of Tamil Nadu. Hence how can she use the services of the special public prosecutor to file defamation cases against meIJ It is certain that the principal sessions judge who accepted the petitions did not apply his mind while issuing summons to me,” the BJP leader contended and pleaded for quashing the defamation cases against him.
The court exempted Swamy from personal appearances in all the cases and issued notice to all concerned asking for their replies why the defamation cases against Swamy should not be quashed.