Sakina Tashrifwala
Published on: October 31, 2022 at 19:22 IST
The Supreme Court dismissed the criminal defamation action filed against Aroon Purie, the former chief executive of India Today Group, in connection with a news story titled “Mission Misconduct,” which appeared in the April 30, 2007 issue of India Today magazine.
A panel comprised of Chief Justice of India (CJI) UU Lalit and Justice Bela M Trivedi granted Purie’s appeal against a Delhi High Court decision that declined to dismiss the case.
However, the Court did not dismiss the case against the author of the relevant story.
“We have approved Purie’s appeal and dismissed journalist’s appeal,” the Court stated.
Senior Advocate KV Vishwanathan, who represented Purie before the Supreme Court, claimed that he was the editor-in-chief at the time of publishing and could not be held accountable in light of the judgement in the case of KM Mathew vs. State of Kerala.
CJI Lalit believes that the government officials and editor should be awarded relief.
“We would give assistance to the government employee and the editor, but not to the correspondent,” he had said.
Purie argued before the High Court that at the time the news item was published, the complainant had already been accused of sexual harassment and financial impropriety, and disciplinary processes had been launched.
As a result, the news article just stated a fact that was already public knowledge.
Following the filing of the complaint, the trial court issued an order summoning Purie.
This order, he contended, was liable to be quashed because it violated Section 202 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) [mandatory enquiry into where the accused was residing], as well as Sections 196(2) [previous sanction of the Central government, the State government, or the District Magistrate for certain offences] and Section 197 CrPC [prosecution of judges and public servants].
The respondent, on the other hand, argued that India Today proceeded with the publication of an unproven and unconfirmed defamatory story that was widely disseminated around the world over the internet with no basis.
In April of this year, a Bench of Justice Yogesh Khanna dismissed Purie’s petition, writing in the decision,
“…the assertions that the news item simply published facts that were factual and represented public records and could not be declared defamatory cannot be accepted. Rather, such assertions, as well as who was responsible for their publishing and how they got to the attention of editors, necessitate critical evaluation, and hence evidence of these concerns is required.”