Kolkata: Public interest exceeds the right to reputation when massive complaints are filed against a person in private, Superior Court of Calcutta He said.
The HC, in an order of March 28, also annulled a defamation case Against some 287 people who sent a massive complaint to the principal minister against the Superintendent of Shalpa Bidyalaya, based in Burdwan, claiming illegal activities. The school is a branch of Siksha Niketan that was founded by the educator and fighter for freedom Bijoy Kumar Bhattacharya.
In his letter to CM and the Minister of Education and Technical Training of the State in 2013, mass petitioners had made a lot of accusations against the Superintendent of the School. Counteracting them, the Superintendent, together with the students, the staff members and the local residents, wrote to the minister claiming that the accusations were “false and without foundation.” An investigation by the Director of the State Directorate of Industrial Training revealed that the accusations against the Superintendent could not be justified since the accusers could not provide any evidence.
The School Superintendent then presented a criminal defamation Case against mass petitioners, claiming that they had not only defamed him, but fogged his image in the eyes of all interested parties, including teachers, students, staff members, tutors and premises.
The main containment before Judge Ajay Kumar Gupta It was whether the mass complaint could be punished as defamation, criminal intimidation and criminal conspiracy. Judge Gupta ruled out the defamation, observing that the mass complaint was in a matter of public interest that was presented to an authority, and never made public according to the statements of mass petitioners.
“This massive request is for the protection of the institution or students or its own rights and interests and cannot be interpreted as malice and the imputation of public reputation or society as such, it cannot be said that it has been done with the intention of defamed the plaintiff,” said the court.