SC slams Jaya, says you can’t ‘throttle’ democracy

New Delhi, August 24

The Supreme Court today again reprimanded Tamil Nadu CM J Jayalalithaa for using defamation cases to “throttle democracy” and asked her to face criticism as she was a public figure.

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“This is not done. This is not healthy democracy. You must face criticism if you are a public figure,” a Bench of Justices Dipak Misra and C Nagappan said. “The government cannot use state machinery to file criminal defamation cases against political opponents. It should focus more on good governance,” the Bench said.

The court’s observations came on a petition filed by DMDK chief A Vijayakanth, seeking quashing of defamation cases filed against him by the state government. —PTI