HC quashes criminal defamation case against Palaniswami, Panneerselvam

Expelled AIADMK spokesperson Va. Pugazhendi had filed the defamation case before a special court for legislators

The Madras High Court on Thursday quashed a criminal defamation case filed against former Chief Ministers Edappadi K. Palaniswami and O. Panneerselvam by expelled All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam spokesperson Va. Pugazhendi before a special court for hearing cases against legislators.

Justice M. Nirmal Kumar allowed the quash petitions filed by the duo and agreed with senior counsel A. Natarajan and Vijay Narayan that the complainant had not made out any case of defamation and therefore the special court was wrong in having issued summons to the two former Chief Ministers.

It was the case of the complainant that he was expelled from the party, out of the blue, on June 14, 2021. The two leaders, in their capacity as co-cooordinator and coordinator of the party, issued a statement accusing him of indulging in anti party activities and asking the cadres not to have any association with him.

The statement was circulated to the media and it was widely publicised thereby bringing disrepute, the complainant claimed. Not convinced with his arguments, Justice Kumar pointed out the party’s coordinator and joint coordinator were fully empowered to take disciplinary action against its members as per the byelaws.

Further, the judge said that the format of the statement issued by the party whenever a member gets expelled remained the same ever since former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa was its general secretary. The same format had been used verbatim by the coordinator and the joint coordinator while expelling the present complainant too.

If the complainant was aggrieved against his expulsion without any inquiry, then his remedy lies elsewhere and not by way of a complaint for criminal defamation. The special court too was not sure whether the complainant had made out a case for defamation, yet it had chosen to issue summons to the two former Chief Ministers, the judge commented.

“Thus, looking at the case from any angle, this court finds that there is no material or reason to proceed against the petitioners. Further continuation of the criminal defamation proceedings would be nothing but abuse of process of law,” the judge concluded.