The Madras High Court, on Tuesday, February 4, directed Tamil bi-weekly magazine Junior Vikatan to pay Rs 25 lakh in damages to senior Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leader TR Baalu for publishing defamatory content against him. The defamation case, filed in 2014, is about two articles published by Junior Vikatan on March 28, 2012, and December 22, 2013. While the court dismissed the claim related to the 2012 article due to limitation laws, it found the 2013 article to be false, unverified, and defamatory.
Justice AA Nakkiran, who heard the case, held that the DMK leader was entitled to be financially compensated by Vasan Publications Private Limited. The judge ordered its Editor R Kannan, Publisher K Ashokan and Printer S Madhavan to pay the amount within a month. The judge agreed with senior counsel P Wilson, who appeared for Baalu, that the article was defamatory and malicious.
The 2013 article falsely attributed a speech to Baalu during a DMK General Body Meeting, in which he allegedly mocked Congress leader Rahul Gandhi as a ‘small boy’ and questioned his leadership. Eyewitnesses, including DMK functionary C Dasarathan, testified that Baalu never made such remarks. During cross-examination, Junior Vikatan's witness admitted that the magazine did not verify the claim before publication. The court ruled that the article was published “without proper verification or confirming the veracity of the news and with a calculated intention of defaming the plaintiff.”
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