Lawfare, Defamation – Journalists

According to a report published in Asia Times, the matter relates to an incident on 7 January, 2013, when the cartoonist Karna’s cartoon was published in a Tamil newspaper Dinamalar. It depicted the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leader Karunanidhi as a cap seller and some of the legislators of the DMK party as monkeys. Hence, the allegory at the beginning of the judgement by Justice Swaminathan.

A lower court had accepted the case against Karna which prompted the cartoonist to move to the High Court. Justice Swaminathan came out in defence of the cartoonist, adding a couple of ironical lines himself: “Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution of India embodying the fundamental right of the citizens to freedom of speech and expression includes within its scope the cartoonists also.”