Yellow Journalism: SC denies relief to editor convicted for slander

New Delhi: Supreme Court has refused to grant relief to a journalist convicted for publishing defamatory articles against an Advocate.

A bench comprising CJI NV Ramana, Justice Surya Kant, and Justice Hima Kohli refused to entertain a special leave petition filed by the Journalist against the Karnataka High Court’s order upholding the order of conviction.

“Typical Yellow Journalism. This kind of language you use and claim you’re a journalist?” Justice Surya Kant remarked.

“Look at the language!” Justice Kohli added.

“They were very liberal, only one-month conviction. He deserves more than that.” CJI Ramana said

The high court through the impugned order had upheld the order of conviction passed by the Trial Court in 2009 and upheld by the Appellate Court in 2015.

The high court had however modified the sentence directing him to undergo simple imprisonment for a period of one month and pay a fine of Rs.50,000.

In the present case, a private complaint was made against the accused of the offence punishable under Section 501 IPC. It was alleged that the accused who is the Editor of the Kannada weekly newspaper ‘Tunga Varthe’, had published several news articles making baseless allegations against the complainant with an intention to defame him and cause harm to his reputation.

The high court had noted that the petitioner made repeated publications and used offensive language against the complainant who is an advocate and notary.

“The material on record would also go to show that the accused was earlier convicted for a similar offence, but that has not deterred him from continuing to make publications which are defamatory in nature.” the order said

The high court had observed that the language used in the publication is highly offensive and clearly amounting to the character assassination of a person. The accused cannot get away by merely pleading that the publication was made in good faith, the court said.