Madras High Court quashes defamation complaint filed against YouTuber Maridhas as complainant was not an “aggrieved person”
The Madras High Court quashed the defamation complaint filed against YouTuber Maridhas as the complainant was not an “aggrieved person”.
Background
Feeling aggrieved by the petitioner’s YouTube Video, the respondent filed the impugned private complaint under Section 500 of IPC. The jurisdictional magistrate took cognizance of the offense and issued a summons to the petitioner. To quash the same, the criminal original petition came to be filed.
Arguments
The petitioner reiterated all the contentions projected in the memorandum of grounds and submitted that the impugned complaint is not maintainable.
Advocate P.Malini, appearing for the complainant, contended that the impugned complaint is very much maintainable. She argued that the words uttered by the petitioner are on the face of it defamatory. The petitioner has without any justification made defamatory statements against Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. The complainant is an office bearer of the party. He was therefore entitled to file the impugned complaint.
Decision:
The single judge bench of Justice G.R.Swaminathan noted that the petitioner had only made imputations against Gayathri Kanthadai and DMK. No imputation has been made against DMK partymen as such. The complainant has not suffered any legal injury.
The court said that his reputation has not in any way been lowered. The Party has not authorized the filing of the complaint. If the partymen or the members of DMK had been defamed, then as a member of a definite class of people, the respondent could have maintained the complaint. Such is not the case here.
The court stated that where the Party alone in contra distinction with partymen has been defamed, others not at the helm of affairs cannot maintain a complaint as they would not be persons aggrieved.
The court stated that since he is not a person aggrieved, continuation of the impugned proceedings will amount to an abuse of legal process. Therefore, it quashed the impugned proceedings.
Case title: Maridhas v/s S.R.S.Umari Shankar
Citation: Crl.OP(MD)No.20774 of 2021 and CRL.MP(MD)Nos.11863 & 11864 of 2021
