The Hindu : National : Court notice to <I>The Hindu</I> , others on Judge's plea

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Saturday, Oct 02, 2004

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National

Court notice to The Hindu , others on Judge's plea

By J. Venkatesan

NEW DELHI, OCT. 1. The Supreme Court today issued notice to the Editor of The Hindu and four other publications on a petition filed by Justice N.S. Veerabhadraiah, a Karnataka High Court Judge, seeking modification of the earlier order shifting the defamation cases filed by him from a Bangalore court to a court in Chennai.

The Judge had filed defamation cases against The Hindu and eight other newspapers claiming damages ranging from Rs. 1 lakh to Rs. 10 lakhs for publishing reports relating to the `Mysore Judges episode' allegedly defamatory to him.

Of the nine publications, transfer petitions were filed by The Hindu Editor, N. Ravi, The Times of India, Deccan Herald, Prajavani Publications and Vijaya Karnataka and the Supreme Court had directed that the cases against them be heard by the City Civil Court, Chennai. The parties were asked to appear before the court concerned in Chennai on October 11.

Seeking a modification of the order, Mr. Justice Veerabhadraiah said that in one of the suits he had claimed damages of Rs. 10,00,001. However, since the jurisdiction of the City Civil Court in Chennai was only up to Rs. 10 lakhs, the court where the cases had been transferred was not competent to hear the cases. He said that only the Madras High Court would have the jurisdiction to try the suit and hence it should be shifted to the High Court. He said all other suits might also be transferred to the High Court since it would have the jurisdiction to try the suit notwithstanding the valuation of the suit.

A three-member Bench, comprising the Chief Justice R.C. Lahoti, Justice G.P. Mathur and Justice P.P. Naolekar, issued notice to the five publications for their response in two weeks and their counsel accepted it. In its earlier order, the court had directed the Chennai court to dispose of the suits as expeditiously as possible.

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