The Madras High Court on Friday stayed all further proceedings in a criminal defamation case filed by Murasoli Trust against Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) leader S. Ramadoss before a Metropolitan Magistrate Court at Egmore here for having tweeted last year alleging that the trust was squatting on Panchami land meant for the Scheduled Castes.
Justice G.K. Ilanthiraiyan also dispensed with the personal appearance of Mr. Ramadoss before the trial court until further orders after advocate K. Balu moved a petition to quash the entire case.
The lawyer claimed that there was nothing defamatory in the tweet and hence the proceedings initiated by the trust were not maintainable.
In his petition, the PMK leader said the Managing Trustee of Murasoli Trust M.K. Stalin, who was also the president of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), had watched a Tamil movie titled ‘Asuran’ last year. Since the movie was based on the travails faced by the Scheduled Castes, he tweeted that it was not just a movie but a lesson to be learnt.
In reply, Mr. Ramadoss tweeted saying, the trust should first learn a lesson from the movie and return the Panchami land on which it was reportedly squatting for long. This, by no stretch of imagination, would amount to defamation, Mr. Balu contended.
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