CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Tuesday extended the stay on the criminal defamation proceedings pending before a Judicial Magistrate court in The Nilgiris against eight Tamil actors.
Justice M V Muralidharan extended the stay while passing further interim orders on a criminal original petition from the actors – Suriya, Sarath Kumar, Sathyaraj, Vivek, Arun Vijay, Sri Priya, Cheran and Vijay Kumar.
Rozario Maria Soosai, a journalist in Ooty, filed a criminal defamation complaint against the eight actors in 2009 for abusing and making statements degrading the reputation of a Tamil newspaper and its reporter at a meeting of South Indian Film Artistes Association in Chennai.
The actors were allegedly angered by a report carried by the newspaper which said prostitution was rife in Tamil film industry, following the arrest of an actress.
When the matter came up again before the magistrate in Ooty on May 15 last, the actors failed to appear before him. The magistrate issued non-bailable warrants against the actors. The actors preferred the present criminal original petition challenging the warrant and a vacation judge S Vimala on May 25 ordered that the non-bailable warrants order of the Ooty court be kept in abeyance.
When the matter came up again before Justice Muralidharan on Tuesday, he extended the interim stay already granted on December 14, 2011, till the disposal of the petition.