A special court has rejected a defamation complaint lodged by two persons alleging that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who was then Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly, had defamed the entire Lingayat community by making a statement that, “Chief Ministers, who are Lingayats, have spoiled the State due to their corrupt nature” during an election campaign in Mysuru in April.
‘On CM of the day’
The court, after perusing the audio-video footage of Mr. Siddaramaiah’s statement made in Kannada pointed out that “the statement is not made in respect of the entire Lingayat community, but only in respect of the Chief Minister, who was holding the position of Chief Minister as on the date of the statement”.
Preeth J., judge of the special court of magistrate set up to deal with the criminal cases against former and present MPs and MLAs from Karnataka, passed the order on June 13 while dismissing the complaint lodged by Shankar Shet and Mallayya Shivalingayya Hiremat, both from Hubballi and belonging to Lingayat community.
“The accused [Mr. Siddaramaiah] has not targeted members of the Lingayat community as such nor any imputation has been made against the Lingayat community as such. The complainants have not suffered any legal injury by the statement...,” the court observed.
Since the complainants are not the person aggrieved, taking cognisance of the offence and proceeding with the case will amount to an abuse of legal process, the court said.
Answer to a scribe’s question
The court also pointed out that Mr. Siddaramaiah’s statement was an answer given in the form of a statement by the Opposition party to the question posed by a journalist, which often happens in politics. The journalist had asked Mr. Siddaramaiah’s opinion on the Bharatiya Janata Party’s strategy of selecting a Lingayat candidate as Chief Minister and the alleged statement was Mr. Siddaramaiah’s answer, the court noted.
