The Supreme Court on Monday put an interim stay on the arrest of Shajan Skaria, the editor of an online Malayalam news portal, in a case filed under the SC/ST Act.
Skaria, the editor of ‘Marunadan Malayalee’, is accused of making defamatory remarks against Communist Party of India (Marxist) Kunnathunad MLA PV Srinijan, who belongs to the Scheduled Caste (SC) community, through a video posted on the YouTube channel of the same portal.
The SC bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and justice PS Narasimha passed the order in response to a special leave petition filed by Skaria against the Kerala high court order dismissing his appeal, against the rejection of anticipatory bail petition by a special court.
“His statements may be defamatory, but these are not offences under the SC/ST Act. He may have said something against the father-in-law [of complainant], judiciary which may be in bad taste,” CJI Chandrachud said.
The bench directed the editor’s counsel to advise him to be more restrained in his comments.
{{/usCountry}}The bench directed the editor’s counsel to advise him to be more restrained in his comments.
{{/usCountry}}Meanwhile, the Kerala high court criticised the state police on Monday for seizing the cellphone of a senior journalist of a newspaper in connection with the searches conducted last week to find the whereabouts of Skariah.
Justice PV Kunhikrishnan made the oral observations in response to a writ petition filed by G Vaishakan, a journalist with Mangalam daily, who alleged police harassment during searches at his residence.
Underlining that the media is the fourth pillar of democracy, the high court asked the police to hand over the cellphone back to the journalist. Since the petitioner is not an accused in the case, his phone should not have been seized.
The police had searched offices of ‘Marunadan Malayalee’ and residences of its journalists (When? )to find clues of the location of Skariah and confiscated laptops, computers, memory cards and other gadgets.