“Nowadays No Decency In Expressing News”: Madras HC In Journalist Abhijit Majumder's Plea For Quashing FIR Over Derogatory Remarks On Periyar

While hearing a plea moved by journalist Abhijit Majumder for quashing an FIR registered against him by the Tamil Nadu police for his opinion piece criticizing TN Minister Udayanidhi Stalin's Sanatana Dharma remark, the Madras High Court orally remarked that nowadays there was no decency in expressing news and opinions.Justice Anand Venkatesh noted that the journalist in his op-ed had made certain statements against Periyar, an Indian social activist and 'father' of the Dravidian movement, which were defamatory and derogatory.In his opinion piece, Majumder had called Periyar “an intellectual thug who did not just marry his own adopted daughter 40 years younger, but reportedly incited local goons to sexually harass his wife to stop her from visiting a temple.” Calling such comments unfair, the court added that Periyar had a stature in the society and such comments, when published could lead to violence.“Why did you make an allegation like that? Having different ideologies is okay. One person can have a certain ideology and another can oppose it. But how can you make these allegations? If you want to criticise a person's politics, ideology, it's all okay. But you cannot make personal allegations,” the court orally remarked.“Nowadays it's all about personal vandalising. There is no decency in expressing news, opinions. It's all verbal violence,” the court added.When the court asked Majumder's counsel where he got the information for writing such statements, the counsel informed the court that the alleged statements were based on other articles. To this, the court criticized Majumder and said that he could not throw mud by saying that he wrote it merely because other people had written it.The counsel then informed the court that the alleged derogatory portion would be removed. Agreeing to this, the court directed Majumder to remove the derogatory portion and express regret for publishing the same. The court added that it would consider passing orders for quashing the FIR after this and adjourned the matter to 23rd January.Case Title: Abhijit Majumder v Inspector of Police and another Case No: CRL OP 24668 of 2023

“Nowadays No Decency In Expressing News”: Madras HC In Journalist Abhijit Majumder's Plea For Quashing FIR Over Derogatory Remarks On Periyar

Upasana Sajeev

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