India today group receives a legal notice for ‘insensitive’ coverage of Sushant Singh Rajput’s death

• A Delhi-based lawyer, Mohit Singh has sent a legal notice of defamation to India Today chairman and editor-in-chief AroonPurie on Monday, for their TV channel’s ‘insensitive’ coverage of the death of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput.
• On Sunday, the 34-year-old actor allegedly died by suicide at his home in Bandra, Mumbai.
• Subsequently, while reporting the news AajTak, a channel of the India Today Group flashed a headline which read as “how did he ‘hit wicket’?” allegedly comparing the death of the actor with a hit wicket during a cricket match on 14 June 2020.
• The news channel has also normalized the act of suicide by the actor by negligently commenting on an event of a critical nature, said Mr. Singh.
• The notice states, “By this comment,AajTak has insinuated that the death of Mr Sushant by suicide is equivalent to that of a batsman in cricket who breaks his own wicket with his bat or any part of his person while playing the ball or setting off for a run. The careless use of such language portrays that the news channel. AajTak with its high viewership has shed its responsibility towards the Indian masses.”
•  Mr Singh mentions that the channel’s coverage was ‘speculative,’ ‘uncorroborated’ and ‘cast aspersions on the actor’s integrity’ andsuch acts constitute an offence of defamation, punishable under Section 500 of the Indian Penal Code.
• The notice demands the news channel to retract its statement and issuance of an unconditional apology “for promoting and spreading misinformation about the mental health issues”.
• A similar headline was also reportedly used by another Hindi news channel, Zee News, “How did the cinema Dhoni get ‘out’ in real life?”

LEGISLATIVE REMEDIES FOR DEFAMATION 

• The Indian Penal Code under chapter XXI sections 499-502 protects an individual’s / person’s reputation.
• Section 499 of Indian Penal Code lays down the definition of defamation and Section 500 lays down the punishment for criminal defamation.
• Under Section 500 of the Indian Penal Code, defamation is punishable with simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or both.
• 3 more remedies are also available to the plaintiffs in case of defamation of dead person/individual–

(1) Damages for emotional harms suffered because of the publication.
(2) Damages for financial losses resulting from the publication.
(3) A judicial declaration that the defamatory statement is false.