Tue Dec 17 07:35:52 UTC 2024: ## Madras High Court Reserves Judgement in Actor’s Defamation Case
**Chennai, December 17, 2024** – The Madras High Court reserved its judgment on Tuesday in a case against actor S.Ve. Shekhar, who was convicted and sentenced to one month of simple imprisonment for sharing a derogatory Facebook post about women journalists in 2018.
Justice P. Velmurugan adjourned the verdict after hearing arguments from both the defense and prosecution. Shekhar’s lawyer argued that the prosecution failed to authenticate the Facebook post, lacking a certificate under Section 65B of the Information Technology Act. However, the judge questioned the necessity of such a certificate given Shekhar’s own apology, where he claimed to have inadvertently shared the post without reading it.
The judge noted Shekhar’s apology, in which the actor stated that the message was authored by someone else. Justice Velmurugan questioned the responsibility of social media users, asking, “Will you share anything and everything that you receive on social media?”
The case stems from a Facebook post shared by Shekhar in April 2018 containing abusive and vulgar comments targeting women journalists. A previous court dismissed a petition to quash the case, highlighting the severity of the post and Shekhar’s responsibility as a public figure. The court described the post’s content as “despicable” and “highly derogatory against the Press as a whole in Tamil Nadu.” The court will deliver its final judgement at a later date.
First Piper 