JNU dossier: Supreme Court sets aside order quashing summons to The Wire in defamation case

The Supreme Court on Wednesday set aside a Delhi High Court verdict that had quashed the summons issued to online news portal The Wire in connection with a defamation case filed by a professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) [Amita Singh v. The Wire through its Editor Siddharth Bhatia and anr].The Wire's news report had alleged that Professor Amita Singh was at the helm of a group of JNU teachers who had compiled a 200-page dossier terming JNU a "den of organised sex racket"A Bench of Justices MM Sundresh and Aravind Kumar asked the Magistrate to take a fresh call on the issuance of summons after examining the article published by The Wire. "We are of the view that the High Court has certainly exceeded its jurisdiction. We have no hesitation in setting aside the impugned judgment. We find that both the High Court and the Magistrate have erred. Suffice to say that the magistrate has not looked at the actual publication; law does not prohibit him from doing the same before issuing summons", it ordered. The Magistrate was given the liberty to proceed with the matter afresh without considering any of the observations made by the High Court earlier..The Supreme Court had in July last year sought the response of The Wire and the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in the instant case relating to criminal defamation proceedings against the portal by the JNU professor. The Bench had, at the time, even orally remarked that it was hard to see how a case of defamation was made out.The appellant, Professor Amita Singh of JNU's Centre for Law & Governance, challenged a Delhi High Court order from March that had quashed the summons issued by a magistrate court..Supreme Court seeks IT Department response to NewsClick plea against tax demands.According to the news report in question, the dossier was titled ‘Jawaharlal Nehru University: The Den of Secessionism and Terrorism'.The article stated that the dossier was submitted to the JNU administration, where some JNU teachers were accused of encouraging a decadent culture in JNU by legitimising separatist movements in India.As per The Wire article, Singh was at the helm of the group of teachers who compiled the dossier. A criminal defamation case was subsequently filed by Singh against The Wire and its reporter in 2016.A magistrate had issued summons in the case in February 2017. However, there was no progress in the matter even after seven years later. The High Court had made note of the said aspect as well, before staying the proceedings before the trial court.Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani had noted that the publication did not claim that Singh was involved in any wrongdoing. Further, it did not speak about the professor in any derogatory, derisive or denigrating terms, the Court observed while quashing the summons.This prompted Singh to approach the Supreme Court in appeal.The Supreme Court today allowed the appeal and asked the Magistrate to take a fresh call on issuance of summons. .Senior Advocate Nitya Ramakrishnan appeared for the news portal.