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The Madras High Court recently, directed the Tamil daily 'Dinamalar' to refrain from publishing news articles in a disrespectful manner.

The Tamil daily addressed the former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa as 'J' in its article.

The single bench of Justice V Bhavani Subbaroyan while hearing the plea filed by the editor (since deceased) and publisher of the Tamil newspaper that sought quashing of proceedings initiated by them for an offence punishable under Section 500, 501 of IPC, 1860 observed that,

"She should have been addressed as Hon'ble Chief Minister J Jayalalitha and not as 'J'. While printing and publishing matters with regard to leaders of the country or state, the petitioners are supposed to give respect and address them accordingly."

The petitioners in this regard argued that, Section 199(2) of the Cr.P.C. provides a special procedure with regard to the initiation of proceedings for prosecution for defamation of a public servant.

It must be noted that, during the course of hearing, the state argued that, the defamatory allegations were with respect to the act or conduct of the then Chief Minister in the discharge of her public functions.

However, the petitioners argued that the present scenario does not constitute defamatory allegations with respect to the act or conduct of the then Chief Minister in the discharge of her public functions and at best can only be treated as personal defamation.

Taking into account the factual matrix of the present case the bench noted,

"If the defamatory statement is personal in nature, this special procedure will not apply and it is only the concerned person who has to file the complaint in his or her individual capacity."

The Bench further said that allegations on which the criminal complaint was filed do not in any way touch upon the conduct of the aggrieved person in discharge of her public function.

[Case title - Dr.R.Krishnamurthy v City Public Prosecutor, 2021]