Supreme Court seeks Jayalalithaa's response in Vijayakanth's plea
Bench while issuing notice to Ms Jayalalithaa in four weeks also asked the CPP whether he can file a complaint without any application of mind.
New Delhi: Observing that criminal defamation cases cannot be filed against political opponents for fair criticism, the Supreme Court on Friday sought the response of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa in the writ petition filed by DMDK leader and actor A. Vijayakanth challenging the cases registered against him and others.
A Bench of Justices Dipak Misra and C. Nagappan agreed with counsel G.S. Mani, appearing for Vijayakanth, that the CM cannot give a direction for grant of sanction to prosecute Vijayakanth and ask the city public prosecutor to file the defamation complaint. The state had filed 14 cases against Vijayakanth, his wife Premalatha, L. Venkatesan, Parthasarathi and Parthiban.
The Bench while issuing notice to Ms Jayalalithaa in four weeks also asked the CPP whether he can file a complaint without any application of mind. The bench extended until further orders the stay of all further proceedings in the defamation complaints for his speech in Dharmapuri criticising the CM.