The Patna High Court has expunged the personal aspersions made by a District Magistrate, sitting as an appellate authority under the Bihar Public Grievance Redressal Act, against a complainant, a Sanskrit scholar and former Vice-Chancellor. While declining to disturb the order on the drainage grievance itself, the Court held that a quasi-judicial authority must decide on facts and law and cannot attack a litigant’s personal character, invoking A.M. Mathur and the ‘good name’ passage from Shakespeare’s Othello.
The Bombay High Court advised Salman Khan’s neighbour Ketan Kakkad to consider deleting social media posts and videos targeting the actor, observing that access to digital platforms does not confer a right to damage another person’s reputation. The Court stressed that pending disputes should be resolved through legal proceedings.
The Supreme Court dismissed a journalist’s plea challenging a Delhi High Court order directing removal of social media posts accusing a co-passenger of sexual harassment, observing that publicly identifying someone online could harm reputation and amount to defamation, especially when consequences included suspension from employment.
The Delhi High Court refused to grant interim relief to YSRCP leader and former TTD chairman YV Subba Reddy in a defamation case over media reports on the Tirupati laddu adulteration controversy.
The Court held that restraining the media without hearing them is justified only in exceptional cases and allowed the matter to proceed after pleadings.
Defamation in Indian law, defined under Section 499 of the IPC, involves harming an individual’s reputation through false statements. It includes criminal and civil aspects, with penalties for offenders. Recent judicial interpretations, including the controversial Subramanian Swamy case, highlight tensions between protecting reputation and maintaining free speech rights, necessitating careful legal consideration.
