Madras HC: Magazine restrained from writing about Kanimozhi’s private life

In what has been rated as the first of its kind order in India, Justice R. Subramanian, while dismissing the vacate injunction petition filed by the magazine’s director and publisher Varadarajan said, “In the light of the law laid down by the Supreme Court, relating to right to privacy, I am constrained to conclude that though there cannot be a blanket injunction against the magazine, there cannot be an order in favour of the Tamil weekly enabling them to publish anything and everything in the guise of public interest.”

“I am, therefore, of the opinion that the order of injunction granted on January 5, 2014 and modified by the order dated April 25, 2016 is to be made absolute, subject to the conditions that the magazine shall not publish anything regarding the private life of the applicant,” the judge added.

The matter relates to a civil suit filed by Kanimozhi against the publication demanding Rs 1 crore as damages for publishing various incriminating articles about her and her family members. She had also sought for a permanent injunction restraining the magazine from in any manner publishing or circulating defamatory articles.

However, the judge on granting the permanent injunction, said “Whenever they propose to publish any article relating to the private life of her claiming that it is in public interest, they shall forward their querries/gist or the full article to her email id and wait for her response. If any response is received within 48 hours, the response shall also be published with the same prominence of the article. If no response is received within 48 hours the magazine will be at liberty to go ahead and publish the article.

“It is made clear that the above restrictions are only with reference to any publication, which involved some matter which is exclusively private. It is not extended to the functions of her as a Member of the Parliament or as a leader of a political party,” the judge said.