The Supreme Court on Thursday told Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa that criminal defamation cannot become a tool to silence criticism against the Government and sought details of all defamation cases lodged by the State’s prosecution wing under her regime.
On a petition filed by A Vijayakant, a former actor who currently heads DMDK party, the Court directed the State Government to produce a list of defamation proceedings initiated by the public prosecutor on the allegation that the CM’s reputation has been sullied.
VIjayakant alone is facing two cases for attacking the Jayalalithaa Government in his political speeches. Although apex court had stayed the trial in one of the cases pending before a Chennai court, it was forced to stay the other case pending in a court in Tirupur following issuance of non-bailable warrant against Vijayakant.
Barely two months have passed since the SC had upheld the constitutional validity of criminal defamation under Section 499 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). But the Court wanted safeguards in place to ensure political free speech in a democracy is not curtailed.
The Bench of Justices Dipak Misra and RF Nariman said, “There has to be tolerance towards free speech and not defamatory speech. But for any speech saying there is corruption in the Government, you (State) cannot slap a defamation case. The recourse to defamation is not to be a political counter weapon.”
Senior advocate R Basanth who appeared for the state government argued that in the case in question, the public prosecutor had applied his mind before filing of a case. According to him, Vijayakant had made 25 speeches where he deliberately targeted the CM. But the bench was of the opinion that such an attempt can have a “chill effect” on the freedom of free speech.
“In a democracy nobody is silent. We allowed criminal defamation to remain on statute as people should not abuse anybody. But if we find there is a continuous effort and a deliberate design to use the office of public prosecutor to slap defamation cases…f or this reason we want the list of cases filed by the state prosecutor on the foundation that the CM was defamed.”
The count of cases could be huge as Jayalalithaa government has been accused of targeting media, academicians and political opponents with defamation cases for speaking against her and her governance.