The Supreme Court has overturned a previous Delhi High Court decision that quashed the summons issued to ‘The Wire’ in a criminal defamation case filed by a former professor of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). The court has instructed the Magistrate to re-examine the summons after a thorough review of the article published by the news outlet.
The contentious article alleged that the former professor led a group of JNU teachers who produced a 200-page dossier branding the university a “den of organized sex rackets.” The Supreme Court found that the High Court overstepped its bounds by dismissing the summons on the merits of the defamation claim, rather than on procedural grounds. The Court noted that the Magistrate should have reviewed the actual publication before deciding to issue the summons.
Now, the case returns to the lower courts, where the Magistrate will have to decide anew whether the defamation case against ‘The Wire’ should proceed based on the content of the article.
