Chennai: Madras high court on Monday permitted the DMK to move a suit seeking ₹1.01 crore in damages for defamation against ministers Aadhav Arjuna and C T R Nirmal Kumar and the TVK IT Wing for accusing the party of shielding granite baron R Veeramani in the child rape case.Granting leave and refusing to concur with the objections raised by the ministers that the general secretary of DMK cannot represent the collective interest of a political party and failure to serve a prior two-month notice under Section 80 of the CPC when a suit is moved against a public servant, Justice K Govindarajan Thilakavadi said, “the scope of consideration in an application seeking leave under Clause 12 (leave to sue) of Letters Patent is limited.““The court is required to examine the averments in the proposed plaint and determine whether the plaintiff has disclosed a substantial part of the cause of action within the jurisdiction of this court. At this stage, the court is not required to conduct a mini trial or conclusively determine disputed questions concerning the ultimate maintainability of the suit,” the judge said.As to the contention of TVK’s IT Wing that it is only an internal wing and has no independent legal personality or capacity to be sued, the court said, “This court is not inclined to adjudicate those disputed questions, while considering an application for leave.“If the IT Wing can establish that it is not a juristic entity or that the suit has not been validly instituted, it is open to it to raise the objections in the suit. All such contentions are expressly left open, the court said.According to DMK, the ministers have been making baseless and defamatory statements with a view to extracting political mileage ahead of the byelection to Madurantakam and Dharapuram, and to cover up the failure of the govt.
