SC to Hear The Wire’s Plea in Defamation Case, Flags Need to Scrap Criminal Defamation

The Supreme Court decided to hear pleas from news outlet The Wire to overturn summonses in a defamation case brought by former JNU professor Amita Singh on Monday, reigniting discussion of India's colonial-era criminal defamation rules.

According to a bench consisting of Justices MM Sundresh and Satish Chandra Sharma, 2the time has come to decriminalise the defamation legislation".

"I think the time has come to decriminalise all this," Justice Sundresh orally commented while agreeing to issue notice on the matter.

While considering a plea against The Wire and its Deputy Editor Ajoy Ashirwad Mahaprastha, the top court made the statement.  The case is based on an article titled "Dossier Calls JNU 'Den of Organised Sex Racket'; Students, Professors Allege Hate Campaign" that was published by The Wire in 2016.

According to The Hindustan Times, Singh, a former professor at JNU, claimed that the piece, which was written by Ajoy Ashirwad Mahaprastha, wrongly claimed that she was the author of the contentious dossier and charged her with inciting hatred against staff and students.

The case claimed that the editor defamed Singh's reputation by failing to confirm the dossier's veracity and using it to financially benefit the magazine.

The petitioners, who include the Foundation for Independent Journalism, the trust that operates The Wire, are contesting a new summons that was given by a Delhi court. They are being represented by Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, Live Law reported.

In 2017, Siddharth Bhatia and Ajoy of The Wire were summoned by a Delhi metropolitan court.  In 2024, the Supreme Court overturned the Delhi High Court's 2023 order to revoke the initial summons and remanded the case for further review.

In May of 2025, the Delhi High Court affirmed a second wave of summons, which is currently under dispute.