New Delhi: The Supreme Court today (Dec 15, 2003) issued notice to the Tamil Nadu Government on a writ petition filed by the Editor of daily 'The Hindu' seeking stay of the 20-odd defamation cases instituted against the newspaper by the Jayalalithaa Government.

The petition also sought to challenge the constitutional validity of the defamation law as provided under Section 499 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) on the ground that if the tax-payers' money was utilised by a democratically-elected Government for the articles written in a newspaper, it would have a "chilling" effect curtailing the right to free speech guaranteed under Article 19 (2) of the Constitution.

A Bench comprising Justice Y K Sabharwal and Justice S B Sinha issued notices to the Centre and the Tamil Nadu Government on that aspect of the petition challenging the constitutional validity of Section 499 of IPC.

Senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for the editor N Ravi, contended that in India the law provided that it would not be defamation if an article written in the newspaper against a public figure was true, not malicious and in public interest.

He said that the defamation law has undergone a change and in countries like America the right of free speech has been recognised as basic right of the newspapers and criticism of public offices were not construed in the strict sense of defamation.

PTI