New Delhi, Oct 31: In a major relief to Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray, the Supreme Court today stayed defamation proceedings initiated against him by a private party for an article that appeared in the party mouthpiece Saamna, in 1994. A bench comprising Justice N.Santosh Hegde and Justice B P Singh issued notice to the complainant Wamanrao Deshpande Charthankar, while staying the criminal defamation proceedings initiated by the magistrate at Sallu, in district Parbani. The court also issued notice to the state of Maharashtra. Thackeray had challenged an order of the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court dismissing his petition seeking quashing of the defamation proceedings. Appearing for the petitioner, advocate Uday Umesh Lalit pointed out that Thackeray was merely the editor-in-chief and had no role in the selection of the news item published in the newspaper. Moreover, he said, the magistrate had quashed the defamation proceedings against the three reporters who had written the allegedly defamatory news item in 1994 but ignored the fact that Thackeray had nothing to do with the publication of the item.
Bureau Report