SC refuses to stay defamation proceedings against Tehelka

The Supreme Court refused to stay the proceedings of a defamation case filed by JD(U) leader Jaya Jaitly against Tehelka editor Tarun Tejpal for conducting a sting operation against her.

A bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justices P Sathasivam and Deepak Verma declined to interfere with the proceedings pending in a trial court in Delhi.

Counsel for Mr Tejpal contended before the court that exposing corruption in public interest des not amount to defamation and even exception Three to section 499 of the IPC makes it clear that seeking truth is part of freedom of speech and expression and one can not be prosecuted for defamation while he is seeking truth.

Senior counsel Arun Jaitley, appearing for Ms Jaitly, however, contended that all these contentions can be raised before the trial court and there was no need to stay the defamation proceedings.

The apex court refused to interfere with the impugned judgment of the Delhi High Court and told the petitioner to face the trial and raise all these contentions before the trial court.

Tehelka magazine had carried out a sting operation showing Ms Jaitly allegedly striking a deal for favouring someone in a matter connected with Defence Ministry but her face was not shown in the video. She filed a defamation case as well as a criminal case against the magazine and its editor Tarun Tejpal.

Several sting operations were carried out by the magazine against several political leaders, including former BJP president Bangaru Laxman and former BJP Union Minister Dilip Singh Judeo to expose corruption.