No Automatic Withdrawal Of Defamation Cases, Says High Court
NDTV
Justice M Nirmal Kumar gave the ruling on February 11 while passing final orders on a criminal original petition from SR Parthiban, DMK MP of Salem, seeking to quash the defamation proceedings against him.
There cannot be automatic closure of defamation cases following issuance of a government order by a subsequent government, which withdrew all the cases filed against officials, MLAs or MPs or the Ministers, including the Chief Minister, of the previous government, the Madras High Court has ruled.
Justice M Nirmal Kumar gave the ruling on February 11 while passing final orders on a criminal original petition from SR Parthiban, DMK MP of Salem, seeking to quash the defamation proceedings against him that were pending before the District and Sessions Judge, Salem.
The charge against Mr Parthiban was that he had delivered a speech in June 2019, which allegedly defamed the name and fame of the then Chief Minister K Palanisamy.
The subsequent DMK government issued a GO on August 10, 2021 withdrawing the case against Parthiban from the Salem court, as per Section 321 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). This GO was said to be based on the recommendations of the State Advocate-General R Shanmugasundaram and State Public Prosecutor Hasan Jinnah.
