The Supreme Court on Monday allowed the appeal of India Today Chairperson Aroon Purie against a criminal defamation complaint filed against him for an alleged defamatory article published in the magazine in 2007.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Uday Umesh Lalit, however, refused to allow the plea of the journalist Saurabh Shukla, who had authored the alleged defamatory article in the India Today magazine. “We have accepted the appeal preferred by Purie and dismissed the appeal by the journalist. We have allowed the appeal by public servants as well,” said the CJI while pronouncing the verdict. The defamation complaint was filed over a news article ‘Mission Misconduct" published in the magazine and it has reported allegations against OP Bhola, an Indian Mission official then posted in Edinburgh. Bhola is a 1989 batch IFS officer. The news article published in India Today magazine in 2007 had referred to some allegations against him allegedly seeking some favours and financial irregularities.