Madras HC junks defamation cases against N Ram, Siddharth Varadarajan

The Madras High Court has quashed criminal defamation suits filed against a bunch of journalists, including N Ram, Siddharth Varadarajan and Nakkeeran Gopal, the Print reported.

The complaints were filed in 2012 alleging “criminal defamation against the state”, the news website noted, adding. “Most of these complaints were over reports against then chief minister of Tamil Nadu J Jayalalithaa.”

The state government should only sparingly use criminal defamation, and it should not become an “impulsive prosecutor in criminal defamation matters that too in an era of social media where there are scores of abusive contents made against public figures”, the Print quoted the court as saying in its judgement.

The high court also urged the media to “introspect from within and help in nation building for the betterment of the generations to come”. This was after he observed that there was “decay happening” in the media.