CHENNAI: Madras high court on Tuesday directed Tamil magazine Junior Vikatan to pay Rs 25 lakh as damages to DMK MP and former Union minister T R Baalu for having published false and vexatious articles against him in 2012 in connection with the Sethusamudram project.
Justice A A Nakkiran passed the order on a suit moved by Baalu against Junior Vikatan.
“Having considered the facts and circumstances of the case and reliance of the various judgments, it is proved that the news items appeared in Junior Vikatan on Dec 22, 2013, are malicious and defamatory thereby lowered the character and reputation of the plaintiff,” the court said.
In the event of enjoying the freedom of press, they have all the liberty to publish the news to bring out to the people with the solid proof, but they should not tarnish the image and reputation of a person without verifying the veracity of the news and confirming the same, the judge added.
“Being a renowned magazine among the people and having wide circulation, they should take much more caution before publishing news items and they cannot take the privilege to tarnish the image and reputation of the plaintiff amongst the minds of the public while the plaintiff held various posts,” the court said.
However, the plaintiff cannot seek for permanent injunction for the future publications regarding the subject matter in the present suit, the court added.
According to Baalu, the magazine in its March 28, 2012 edition published a question-and-answer type news about the Sethusamudram project, which allegedly contained several allegations against him.
The allegations were highly mischievous and derogatory, he said. Therefore, Baalu issued a legal notice to the magazine seeking unconditional apology. However, the magazine replied to the notice justifying the stand taken by the publication.
Once again in December 2013, the magazine published yet another news item against Baalu.
Aggrieved, Baalu moved the present suit alleging that the magazine was publishing baseless news articles against him to hamper his prospects in the elections to Lok Sabha in 2014.