Tamil biweekly Nakkeeran’s editor, R Gopal has got some relief from the 18 defamation complaints filed against him, as the Madras High Court has ordered a stay on all further proceedings.
Justice P N Prakash granted the interim relief on Wednesday. Gopal was also excused from personal appearance in courts dealing with the complaints according to a report in the Times of India.
“The 18 complaints were lodged by the city public prosecutor in the principal sessions judge in Chennai on behalf of chief minister Jayalalithaa, her cabinet colleagues and some IAS officers,” Gopal’s legal counsel Perumal told ToI.
Gopal had sought the Supreme Court’s intervention, challenging the legal validity of Section 499 of the IPC under which the defamation complaints were lodged.
The Supreme Court clubbed Gopal’s petition along with similar ones filed by Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, actor-politican Vijayakant and others.
Since 2006, a total of 213 defamation complaints have been lodged against Gopal by the Tamil Nadu government.