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criminal defamation

15 October 2018

Karanjawala & Co has filed a criminal defamation complaint for parliamentarian MJ Akbar today against a female journalist who had alleged in Tweets on 8 October that she had been sexually harassed by him while he was her boss and a senior editor.

28 August 2017

NUJS Kolkata 2015 alumni Jay Sayta, who reports on India’s gambling laws on his website glaws.in, and The Wire, are facing E-Cool Gaming Solutions' criminal defamation case in far-flung Mizoram for Sayta's story reporting on a Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) audit of the complainant, reported Medianama.

29 July 2016

We explain what’s going on in the Supreme Court between Rahul Gandhi, the RSS and lots of heavyweight lawyers right now. And wasn’t RaGa already told he should apologise or something?

27 July 2016

The Supreme Court on Wednesday faulted the magistrate for seeking a police report on a complaint of criminal defamation against Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi, who had blamed the RSS for the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi.

13 May 2016

The Supreme Court on Friday upheld the constitutional validity of India's criminal defamation law that was contested by Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and BJP leader Subramanian Swamy.

12 May 2016

The Supreme Court is likely to pronounce on Friday its verdict on a batch of petitions including by Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and BJP leader Subramanian Swamy challenging the constitutional validity of sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code providing for criminal defamation.

07 April 2016

A court today granted bail to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and five others in a criminal defamation case filed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

A lower court announced the bail to Kejriwal and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders Kumar Vishwas, Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh, Raghav Chadha and Deepak Bajpayee.

Kejriwal and the others were summoned in March to appear before the court on 7 April.

Jaitley accused Kejriwal and other AAP leaders of giving “false and defamatory” statements against him in a case related to the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA), thereby harming his reputation.

The AAP leaders had alleged corruption in the DDCA, which Jaitley headed for 13 years until 2013. Jaitley has denied the allegations.

05 August 2015

Criticism of a district judge attracted criminal contempt charges by the Madras high court against two advocates who also prevented a court staff from performing his duties, reported the Express. The court further ordered the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry to initiate disciplinary proceedings against them

Advocates Manikandan Vathan Chettiar and Mathankumar had allegedly made “reckless and unsubstantiated” allegations against a district judge in a criminal original petition on which they were acting for their client, before Madras HC justice PN Prakash.

Justice Prakash initiated contempt proceedings against the two advocates after observing that it is their “habit to file such petitions and ask for omnibus prayers”. Chettiar and Mathankumar were also criticised by the court last week for their “repeated and unsubstantiated” allegation against a public prosecutor, and their client was fined Rs 10,000.

15 July 2015

After Subramanian Swamy and PP Rao began arguing yesterday in the multi-petitioner challenge of sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Swamy, senior counsel Rao and Rajeev Dhavan today continued their arguments.

14 July 2015

The hearings in the Subramaniam Swamy v Union of India case began today, with Swamy, alongside several other petitioners, seeking to get the Supreme Court to strike down section 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code. This is what happened.

09 July 2015

Speaker's corner: SingaporeDefamation will no longer be a jailable offence under which journalists may be charged for their reportage, if the Foundation of Media Professionals’ (FMP) constitutional challenge to India’s criminal defamation provisions wins in the Supreme Court.

11 February 2015

Advocate Sushil Kumar Mishra has filed a criminal defamation complaint before an Allahabad magistrate against US president Barack Obama, who allegedly “tarnished the image of India which is a secular country”, after POTUS warned in a speech on his India visit that religious tolerance was on the rise, reported the PTI.

Magistrate Neelima Singh set 18 February to hear the matter under section 500 of the IPC for criminal defamation and to decide whether Obama should be summoned.. Complainant alleged Obama had, through his reported statement that religious intolerance was on the rise in the country, “tarnished the image of India which is a secular country”. He prayed that Obama be prosecuted under Section 500 (punishment for defamation) of the IPC

Hat-tip @SauravDatta29.

The case has now been dismissed, reported the PTI, because it was not maintainable and Obama enjoyed diplomatic immunity.

11 July 2013

A Supreme Court bench of Justices AK Patnaik and SJ Mukhopadhaya ruled that lawmakers can be disqualified if they have been convicted of a criminal offence.

The bench struck down as ultra vires section 8(4) of the Representation of the People Act (RPA), which protected MPs, MLAs and other legislators in their posts if they had appealed their criminal convictions in a higher court, reported the Indian Express.

The ruling, which will not apply retrospectively to those who have already filed their criminal appeals, was made in petitions filed by Lily Thomas and the NGO Lok Prahari, which challenged a number of RPA provisions as unconstitutional.

According to disclosures made by candidates to the Election Commission, 1,460 MPs and MLAs have criminal cases pending, of which 688 were serious, reported the Express.

[Download judgment here]

01 August 2012

Sidharth Luthra Senior counsel and new additional solicitor general Sidharth Luthra’s credo - becoming so good that nobody can lay a finger on you - sits well with his propensity for hard work at nearly superhuman levels and a passion for the criminal court room. And if anyone in the Delhi courts was not already aware of him, there are also his well-known pre-court-vacation parties of course.

Advocate Adit Subramaniam Pujari meets Luthra for Legally India’s new Debrief series to find out about his practice and what makes the man tick.

06 July 2012

Sidharth LuthraExclusive: Supreme Court senior advocate Sidharth Luthra has today accepted his appointment to become additional solicitor general (ASG).