The Madras High Court has quashed a 2018 case booked against journalist Nakkheeran Gopal and a few others under Section 124 (assaulting or overawing President/Governor with intent to compel or restrain the exercise of any lawful power) of the Indian Penal Code for having published articles related to the then Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit and tutor Nirmala Devi accused of trafficking college girls.
Justice V. Sivagnanam quashed the entire proceedings pending before a Metropolitan Magistrate at Egmore in Chennai after holding that Section 124 would not get attracted at all. He agreed with petitioners’ counsel P.T. Perumal that the articles were related to misuse of the name of the Governor’s office by others and in no way insinuated that the then Governor was involved in any unsavoury activity.
The judge wrote that journalists were entitled to expose wrongdoings and bring them to public knowledge. They could not be prosecuted for doing their job. He further ruled that the offences under Sections 505 (i)(b) (inducing a person to commit an offence against the State) and 506(i) (criminal intimidation) of the IPC were also not made out against the quash petitioners before the court.
