Belthangady: The apex court has upheld the Belthangady civil court judgment imposing three-month imprisonment and also a fine of Rs 4.5 lakh on Somanath Nayak, president of the Nagarika Seva Trust, Guruvayanakere, here.
Nayak is reported to have been charged with defamation of dharmadhikari of Shri Kshetra Dharmasthala D Veerendra Heggade and also disobeying an order of temporary injunction to not publish any statement that would harm the reputation of the dharmadhikari.
Justices M R Shah and M M Sundresh said in their order on October 19, “Having gone through the impugned judgment and order passed by the Karnataka High Court and the learned trial court, we see no reason to interfere with the same in exercise of powers under Article 136 of the Constitution of India.”
They also said that the earlier injunction had been violated repeatedly by the petitioner, said sources. The Belthangady court had rightly judged Nayak guilty for violation of the injunction, said the apex court judges, citing the application under Order 39 Rule 2A of Civil Procedure Code. “The Special Leave Petition stands dismissed,” the bench added.
Heggade had filed an original suit before the Additional Civil Judge and JMFC, Belthangady. He had also secured a temporary injunction order in November 2013 against Nayak and five other people to hold them from making or publishing any statement that would impact the reputation of Shri Kshetra Dharmasthala and Heggade himself.
Since Nayak continued to publish statements against Heggade, the dharmadhikari is learned to have filed an interim application against Nayak for violation of the injuction. The Belthangady civil court had sentenced Nayak to three months of imprisonment along with payment of a compensation of Rs 4.5 lakh.
While Nayak appealed against the order, his application was turned down by the senior civil judge and the JMFC, Belthangady, in March 2022 and the Karnataka High Court in May 2022.
Nayak had then filed a special leave petition before the Supreme Court, which, however, has now also dismissed his petition.
