MADRAS HC - COURT CANNOT TEACH ETHICS TO THE PEOPLE

The Court cannot teach ethicality to the people; it is for Society to evolve and follow the ethical standard; the Madras HC observed this while quashing a criminal defamation case against a cartoonist.

The petitioner published a cartoon regarding the self-immolation incident that took place in 2017. He portrays the burning body of the baby, which was watched by three persons, without clothes and covering their private parts with currency notes. The said three persons are the District Collector, the CM of Tamil Nadu and the Superintendent of police. After that, the 
District Collector registered an FIR u/s 501 of IPC and Section 67 of the IT Act, 2000 against 
the petitioner. 

The Court noted that the petitioner intends to express his grief that the Authorities have to be ashamed of themselves over the inability in containing the demand of exorbitant interest by the moneylenders. So here, the intention of the petitioner is not to defame the Officials but to reveal the gravity of the issue concerned. 

Lastly, the context, as mentioned earlier, shows that it did not contain any criminality. However, 
Ethical questions may involve.