CHENNAI: THE defamation proceedings pending against eight Tamil actors before a Judicial Magistrate Court in The Nilgiris has been quashed by the Madras High Court.
Passing final orders on a criminal original petition from the actors -- Surya, Sarath Kumar, Sathyaraj, Vivek, Arun Vijay, Sri Priya, Cheran and Vijay Kumar, Justice MV Muralidharan quashed the proceedings on Wednesday.
Originally, Rozario Maria Soosai, a journalist in Ooty, had filed a criminal defamation complaint against the eight actors on November 13, 2009 for allegedly making statements degrading the reputation of a Tamil newspaper and the reporter attached to it, during a meeting of the South Indian Film Artistes Association in Chennai on October 7, 2009. The actors were allegedly angered by the report carried by the newspaper saying that prostitution was rife in Tamil film industry, following the arrest of an actress.
After a long legal battle, when the matter came up again before the magistrate in Ooty on May 15 last, the actors failed to appear before him. The magistrate Senthilkumar Rajavel issued non-bailable warrants against them.
The actors preferred the present criminal original petition challenging the warrant. 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 June 13 last, he extended the interim stay already granted on December 14, 2011 till the disposal of the petition. The judge also dispensed with the appearance of the petitioners before the trial court. Making the temporary relief permanent, the judge today quashed the proceedings.