Public interest overrides reputation in mass petitions: High court

KOLKATA: Public interest outweighs the right to reputation when mass complaints are filed against a person in private, Calcutta high court has said.

The HC, in a March 28 order, also quashed a defamation case against about 287 people who sent a mass complaint to the chief minister against the superintendent of Burdwan-based Satish Chandra Shilpa Bidyalaya alleging illegal activities. The school is a branch of Siksha Niketan that was founded by educationist and freedom fighter Bijoy Kumar Bhattacharya.

In their letter to the CM and the state technical education and training minister in 2013, the mass petitioners had made a slew of allegations against the school superintendent. Countering them, the superintendent, along with students, staff members and local residents, wrote to the minister claiming the allegations were "false and baseless". An inquiry by the director of the state Directorate of Industrial Training revealed that the allegations against the superintendent could not be substantiated as the accusers could not provide any proof.

The school superintendent then filed a criminal defamation case against the mass petitioners, claiming they had not only maligned him but tarnished his image in the eyes of all concerned, including teachers, students, staff members, guardians and locals.

The main contention before Justice Ajay Kumar Gupta was whether the mass complaint could be punishable as defamation, criminal intimidation, and criminal conspiracy. Justice Gupta ruled out defamation, observing that the mass complaint was on a matter of public interest that was submitted to an authority, and was never made public as per the claims of the mass petitioners.

"This mass petition is for the protection of the institution or the students or their own rights and interest and cannot be construed as malice and imputation of reputation in public or society as such, cannot be said to have been made with intent to defame the complainant," the court said.
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