It’s high time defamation should be decriminalised: Supreme Court

It is high time defamation should be decriminalised, the Supreme Court observed on Monday as it stayed a trial proceeding against the news portal The Wire on former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) professor Amita Singh’s complaint over a news report alleging she submitted a dossier on an alleged sex racket in the university.

The court stayed a trial proceeding against the news portal The Wire. (HT PHOTO)

A bench of justices MM Sundresh and SC Sharma made this comment as it issued a notice on a petition of the Foundation for Independent Journalism, which runs the portal. It stayed the trial proceedings, saying, “For how long can you keep on dragging this matter?”

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the petitioner, also referred to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s petition challenging the summons against him in a defamation case over his remarks against VD Savarkar. The court allowed the Foundation for Independent Journalism’s petition to be tagged with the pending defamation matters.