Madras HC Junks Plea Challenging Dismissal Of Complaint Against Ex-Congress MP, ABP News Channel Over 'Defamatory' Post On RSS

The Madras High Court recently dismissed a Revision plea filed against a December 2016 order of the Magistrate Court in Chennai dismissing a complaint filed against former Congress MP Nirmal Khatri and ABP News for posting an alleged defamatory post against an RSS worker. “In the considered view of this Court, the order passed by the Court below does not suffer from apparent illegality or infirmity and it does not require the interference of this Court in the exercise of its revisional jurisdiction,” the bench of Justice N. Anand Venkatesh observed as it underscored that reviving the complaint at this stage would be like ‘whipping a dead horse’. Essentially, a private complaint was filed by an RSS worker against Khatri and ABP News before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Allikulam, Chennai for an offence under Section 499 IPC. It was alleged in the complaint that Khatri shared a picture on his Facebook account depicting him (the said RSS worker) as creating disruptions during flood relief operations in Chennai. It was the further case of the complainant that Khatri had copied the photograph from ABP News Channel, which had displayed the said image on their news channel. In view of the above, the complainant, who claimed to be an RSS worker, alleged that the defamatory comment/statement seriously affected the reputation of RSS and its workers. However, the Magistrate Court concerned came to the conclusion that there was nothing available to show that the defamatory content was sent from the account of Khatri, and thus, finding no sufficient grounds to proceed against the accused persons, it dismissed the complaint under Section 203 of CrPC. Challenging the dismissal of the complaint, the instant revision plea was moved by the said RSS Worker/Complainant. Finding no robust ground to revive the complaint, the Court dismissed the revision plea. Case title – H Kalyan Singh vs. Dr Nirmalkathri and others Case Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (Mad) 281 Click Here To Read/Download Order

Madras HC Junks Plea Challenging Dismissal Of Complaint Against Ex-Congress MP, ABP News Channel Over 'Defamatory' Post On RSS

Sparsh Upadhyay

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