It’s high time defamation should be decriminalised: Supreme Court
The Supreme Court made the observation as it stayed a trial proceeding against the news portal The Wire on former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) professor Amita Singh’s complaint
It is high time defamation should be decriminalised, the Supreme Court observed on Monday as it stayed a trial proceeding against the news portal The Wire on former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) professor Amita Singh’s complaint over a news report alleging she submitted a dossier on an alleged sex racket in the university.
A bench of justices MM Sundresh and SC Sharma made this comment as it issued a notice on a petition of the Foundation for Independent Journalism, which runs the portal. It stayed the trial proceedings, saying, “For how long can you keep on dragging this matter?”
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the petitioner, also referred to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s petition challenging the summons against him in a defamation case over his remarks against VD Savarkar. The court allowed the Foundation for Independent Journalism’s petition to be tagged with the pending defamation matters.
The Foundation approached the Supreme Court against the May 7 Delhi high court order refusing to quash the January 13 trial court summons.
Singh filed the defamation case in the trial court in 2016 against The Wire and its deputy editor, Ajoy Ashirwad Mahaprastha. She did so in her capacity as Chairperson of the Centre for the Study of Law and Governance at JNU.
In July last year, the Supreme Court directed the continuation of the trial. It set aside a high court order quashing the summons in March 2023. Singh challenged the order, claiming that the high court failed to see the contents of the news report before setting aside the summons.
The Supreme Court in July 2024 said the high court erred by entering the merits of the case. It directed the magistrate’s court to take a fresh call on the issuance of the summons.
JNU filed a response denying receipt of any dossier as claimed in the news report. Singh denied the contents of the report, attributing the preparation of the dossier to her. She said this imputation was circulated widely on social media, which tarnished her image as a professor. Singh said she faced a hate campaign due to the allegedly defamatory article.
The magistrate’s court subsequently took further documents on record and issued fresh summons.
