In a democracy, a public figure must be prepared to face criticism, the Supreme Court told Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Wednesday criticising her Government's attempts to scuttle all voices of criticism against her governance with defamation cases.
Using strong words to express their displeasure over the number of defamation proceedings launched by the Jayalalithaa Government against her political opponents, the bench of Justices Dipak Misra and C Nagappan told the Chief Minister, “You (Jayalalithaa) cannot use defamation cases to throttle democracy….This is not healthy for a democracy. If you are a public figure you will face criticism. This is not done.”
This is the third time the Supreme Court has lashed out against the Jayalalithaa Government, after the Court on two previous occasions said that defamation cannot become a political “counter weapon”. The bench reiterated the same thought on Wednesday and asked the State Government to focus more on good governance than resorting to defamation cases. The Court will now hear Jayalalithaa's arguments on September 21.
Earlier, the State Government submitted to the Court that in last five years, 200 defamation cases were filed by State prosecution, of which 55 were lodged against media, while 85 cases involved criticism against Jayalalithaa. The comments by the Court came during the hearing of a petition filed by DMDK chief A Vijaykant, who challenged two defamation proceedings against him for criticising Jayalalithaa. The apex court has stayed the non-bailable warrants issued against him in both cases.