Lucknow court dismisses defamation case against UP CM Adityanath for alleged anti-Muslim slur
A Lucknow court has dismissed a defamation complaint filed against Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath for using an allegedly abusive term against Muslims during a speech in the Legislative Council in February, Bar and Bench reported on Wednesday.
Additional Civil Judge Alok Verma said that the comment made by Adityanath in the Upper House of the state Legislature cannot be challenged in a court because it was protected under Article 194 of the Constitution.
The article, which is about the privileges and immunities of members of state legislatures, guarantees them freedom of speech within the Houses.
Adityanath had used the word while saying that socialists had become two-faced because they send their children to English-medium schools, but tell others to study Urdu “to turn them into maulvis”, Bar and Bench reported.
The complaint was filed by Amitabh Thakur, a former Indian Police Services officer and the chief of the political party Azad Adhikar Sena.
Thakur alleged that the chief minister’s remarks had incited hostility and hatred among sections of society based on caste, religion, place of birth, residence, language and community, thereby disturbing social harmony.
The complainant alleged that the remark had hurt Muslim sentiments and defamed the community.
The court said that only the person affected by the alleged defamatory remark can file such a complaint. As Thakur was not an...
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