Defamation suit: Malhotra pays Swamy special cost

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, AUG. 25. The Bharatiya Janata Party MP, Mr. V.K. Malhotra, today paid Rs. 7,500 to the Janata Party president, Dr. Subramaniam Swamy, for his failure to produce a clipping of the article on the basis of which he had filed a defamation suit against Mr. Swamy and others.

Mr. Malhotra handed over a cheque for the amount to Dr. Swamy's representative in the court of the Additional District Judge, Mr. Naipal Singh.

The Additional District Judge, Mr. R. S. Arya, had in August last year asked Mr. Malhotra to pay the amount to Mr. Swamy as special cost.

Mr. Malhotra had filed the suit against Dr. Swamy, the editor of Sunday, Mr. Vir Sanghvi, the publisher and the Ananda Bazar Patrika Group in 1993.

Mr. Malhotra had alleged that the editor, the publisher of the magazine, the Ananda Bazar Patrika and Dr. Swamy had in an article called him an ``ignorant man'' for not knowing that the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs was not a ``country'' but an international treaty.

While the editor, the publisher and the Ananda Bazar Patrika Group had earlier tendered an apology by carrying an item in the magazine and paid Rs. 15,000 as cost to Mr. Malhotra, Dr. Swamy continued to fight the case.

As the three had tendered apology, Mr. Malhotra told the court that he was withdrawing the suit. But counsel for Dr. Swamy opposed it saying that his client be also paid an amount as a special cost. The court asked Mr. Malhotra to pay Dr. Swamy the amount as the former failed to produce clipping of the said article.

The court had then dismissed the suit as ``withdrawn.''

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