The Supreme Court on Monday fought a fresh debate on criminal defamation laws of India’s colonial period, as it agreed to hear the petitions filed by the news portal The Wire, seeking cancellation of summons in the defamation case filed by former JNU professor Amita Singh. According to the report of Live Law, Justice M.M. A bench of Sundaresh and Justice Satish Chandra Sharma said that the time has come to free the defamation law crime.
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Justice Sundaresh agreed to issue a notice on the case and said that I think the time has come to free all this crime. The apex court made this comment while hearing a petition against The Wire and its Deputy Editor Ajay Ashirwad Mahaprastha. The case stems from an article published in 2016 by The Wire, titled JNU in Dosier described JNU as ‘the base of the organized sex racket’; Students and professors accused of hate campaign. Former JNU Professor Singh alleged that in an article written by Ajay Ashirwad Mahaprastha, it has been falsely claimed that he has written controversial dosier and accused him of spreading hatred against students and teachers.
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The complaint alleged that the editor did not confirm the authenticity of the dosier and used it to provide financial advantage to his magazine, hurt Singh’s reputation. Petitioners represented by senior advocate Kapil Sibal, including Foundation for Independent Journalism (Trust Running The Wire).