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In this the order the Madras High Court reiterated that, pre-trial injunctions which gag the freedom of speech can only be granted in the rarest cases. This came in furtherance of the case which was being dealt with by the Court,while dismissing a group of applications filed to restrain NGO Arappor Iyakkam from publicising certain allegations concerning favouritism in the award of public contracts. The application was filed by the State Minister for Municipal Administration, SP Velumani and a independent contractors who alleged that Arappor Iyyakam had been making wild allegations against them to injure their reputation. SP Velumani sought a reward of 1 crore in response to this. Iyakkam had stated that Velumani had abused his powers to promote cartelization and bid-rigging in the award of public corporation contracts, in order to favour his close aides and benamis.
It was observed by the Court that, since Arrappor Iyyakkam had not made any comments on the private lives of the applicants he could not be restrained from exercising the freedom of speech and expression. Further, being a public servant, Velumani could not claim immunity from scrutiny touching upon acts done in his official capacity. The Court also observed that there existed nothing which suggested that the NGO was acting with malafides or that there was a real and substantial risk of prejudice to justice by its actions. However, the Court did not fail to mention that, these observations should not have any bearing on the pending case brought by Arappor Iyyakkam against Velumani.
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