Action taken against defamers of Deepam judge, TN tells SC

NEW DELHI: Tamil Nadu DGP has told SC that the state police took action against those who had spread defamatory remarks against Madras high court judge Justice G R Swaminathan after he passed the order to light the Karthigai Deepam on the Deepa Thoon (lamp pillar) at the Thiruparankundram Subramaniya Swamy Hill Temple and cyber patrolling is being done to prevent further circulation of derogatory content.

In an affidavit, the head of Tamil Nadu police briefed the court about the action taken by it while responding to a petition alleging that the state did not take appropriate steps against those who were protesting on ground and spreading defamatory remarks against the judge.

“It is humbly submitted that, in this process, 14 URLs on Facebook and 16 URLs on Twitter (X) were identified and forwarded for content blocking. Out of these, four URLs on Facebook were blocked, while the remaining URLs are not blocked by the concerned intermediaries yet. Continuous cyber patrolling is being carried out by the Cyber Crime Wing to monitor and prevent further circulation of such prohibited and derogatory content, and necessary legal action is being initiated as and when violations are detected,” G Venkataraman said in his affidavit.

He told the court that instructions had already been issued to all superintendents of police in districts, all commissioners of police in cities and director general of police, cyber crime wing, directing them to take immediate and effective action to ensure that no pictorial representations, statements, caricatures, or contents tending to scandalise the court/judge should be allowed to be published or circulated.

The affidavit said the cyber crime cell of the Greater Chennai police has already registered cases under Sections 196, 221, 267, 353(1)(c), and 351(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, read with Section 67 of the Information Technology Act, 2000.

The affidavit was filed on a petition filed by advocate G S Mani, who is also associated with BJP, alleging that caste- and religion-based defamatory remarks were made against Justice Swaminathan after he passed the order.

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