The Madras High Court on Friday quashed four criminal defamation cases preferred at the instance of the State government against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy for having criticised former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa in 2015.
Justice N. Satish Kumar allowed all four quash petitions pending since 2016 and held that he did not find any reason to force the petitioner to undergo the ordeal of trial when there did not appear to be any substance for the launch of prosecution by the Stated government.
The judge agreed with Mr. Swamy’s counsel Ravi Ramaswamy that the criticisms were made against Jayalalithaa in her personal capacity and hence it was completely unacceptable on the part of the State government to have granted sanction for prosecution.
The counsel brought it to the notice of the court that one of the defamation cases had been filed because Mr. Swamy had claimed that Jayalalithaa was sick and that she may depart to The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, in the U.S., any moment for a liver transplantation.
The other case had been filed because he claimed that handing over governance in the hands of Jayalalithaa was akin to handing over a garland in the hands of a monkey. The third instance related to criticism of permission granted for a memorial event to remember LTTE leader Thileepan.
