SC Directs Gujarat Court Not To Proceed With Jay Shah's Defamation Case Against 'The Wire' Till April 12 [Read Petition & Order]

The Supreme Court bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice D. Y. Chandrachud and Justice A. M. Khanwilkar on Thursday directed the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate not to proceed with the criminal defamation proceedings against The Wire filed by Jay Shah, son of BJP President Amit Shah in respect of an article published in Wire until the next hearing before the apex court on April 12.The Bench also issued notice on the SLP preferred by The Wire Journalist Rohini Singh and Founder Editors of the Wire against the February 8 judgment of the Gujarat High Court refusing to quash the defamation proceedings.During the hearing Chief Justice Dipak Misra has criticized the online medias and said;"We respect freedom of press but it has limits, many in electronic media think they can write any thing. How can they write on any one whatever they like".The Wire in it's petition submitted that the truth of the article’s averments is self-evident, and are indeed admitted by the Respondent."The article’s purport is summed up thus- “BJP president Amit Shah’s son, Jay Shah, has seen a dramatic increase in some of his businesses since Narendra Modi became prime minister.” There is thus a straight forward narration of events neither asserting honesty nor dishonesty but holding the sequence of events out for public scrutiny. This is not ‘imputation’ within the meaning of S.499 IPC to warrant even issue of summons. Yet the High court has declined to quash the summoning order observing that the articles tries to “portray” these facts. Matters that law intends to be in the public domain, can hardly be a portrayal attributed to the Petitioners, much less constitute a criminal offence".The Petitioners have raised the following questions;I. Can publication of matters intended by law to be in the public domain constitute a criminal offence of defamation?II. Can such a publication amount to an imputation merely because it raises questions about the conduct of public figures?III. Is the truth of public record or the public interest inherent in the conduct of public sector companies too a matter only to be seen at the trial by way of a defence of Exception to S.499 IPC?IV. What is the threshold a questioning or even criticism must cross before it can be termed an “imputation” under S.499 IPC so as to warrant issue of summons?V. Is the law of criminal defamation such that even publication of matters based on public record, and in this case, confirmed by the complainant, will require the truth to be proven only at a criminal trial as an Exception?VI. Can a court refrain from looking at public record for assessing a complaint of defamation before it issues process in relation to a publication based on record?VII. What is the evidentiary burden that a complainant has to fulfill before issuance of process for the offence of defamation?VIII. What is the legal burden on a complainant to establish a prima facie case of defamation for the purpose of issuance of process?IX. Whether the possibility that defamation may yet be proved to have occurred sufficient for initiation of criminal process, without any pre summoning evidence to establish the same?X. Whether the High Court has erred in not recording any finding regarding the sufficiency of the Ld. Trial Court’s satisfaction about the basic ingredients of defamation?XI. Whether defamation can be prima facie inferred simply on the basis of a witness’s statement claiming defamation, that is, whether the Ld. Magistrate has to accept such a statement without any further application of mind?XII. Whether defamation can be claimed where there is no evidence to show that the complainant’s reputation has been hurt?XIII. Whether a witness’ statement that others (not him personally) have may be led to think ill of the complainant can be acted upon not be hit by the rule against hearsay and conjecture?XIV. Whether a Magistrate is bound to indepenantly assess the complaint and evidence under Section 202 of the CrPC to judge whether there is a prima facie case of defamation before issuance of process?Jay Shah alleged before the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s court in Ahmedabad that The article dated October 8, 2017, titled ‘The Golden Touch of Jay Amit Shah’, contains inter alia the following imputations-“...Turnover of a company owned by Shah’s son increased 16,000 times over in the year following election of PM Narendra Modi...Firm of Amit Shah’s son, whose business is chiefly stock trading, turns to windmill generation with PSU loan...The internal sub-heading — ‘Loans from a cooperative bank, and a PSU’...Do a story on Amit Shah’s son’s ‘honest, legal, bonafide’ businesses and ‘he shall reserve right to prosecute you’, his lawyer warns The Wire...”The Gujarat High Court, in the impugned judgment, had observed, “Having gone through both the articles, i.e, the first, published in point of time and the later one after the first was withdrawn, prima facie, I am of the view that a case...

SC Directs Gujarat Court Not To Proceed With Jay Shah's Defamation Case Against 'The Wire' Till April 12 [Read Petition & Order]

Mehal Jain

Tags