New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday slammed Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa for misusing the defamation law and said that public figures must face criticism.
Hearing a matter related to defamation cases filed by the Jayalalithaa government against actor–turned politician Vijayakanth, the SC said that public figures cannot use defamation law to throttle democracy and criticism of policy could not be a ground for defamation.
The SC has reissued a notice to Jayalalithaa on a petition against her for alleged misuse of defamation laws. The next hearing would take place on September 22.
Earlier, the Madras High Court had stayed all further proceedings in the 14 criminal defamation cases pending against him in various courts. Justice PN Prakash had granted interim relief to the actor who, along with his wife, had filed a petition to quash the cases registered against them for their speeches and statements against the Tamil Nadu government.
Faced with cases and summons, he had first moved the apex court challenging the constitutionality of Section 499 of CrPC and Section 199 of the IPC.
Jaya government and her party AIADMK have filed hundreds of criminal defamation cases against all kinds of people including the media and opposition leaders across the state.
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