CHENNAI, May 13: Former Tamil Nadu chief minister and AIADMK general secretary, J Jayalalitha, has moved the Madras High Court for a direction to Tamil weekly Nakkeeran to pay Rs one crore as damages for publishing a letter addressed to her political mentor, late MGR, which was purported to have been written by her.

Vacation judge K Sampath, before whom the suit came up for hearing on Tuesday, granted an interim injunction restraining the weekly from publishing any article about Jayalalitha or any personal letter purported to have been written by her in that magazine or in any other magazine. The judge posted the suit for further hearing on June 20.

According to the plaintiff (Jayalalitha), on Nakkeeran's cover page of May 6, 1997, it was mentioned that MGRkku Jayalalitha yezhuthiya original rahasya kadithangal (secret original letters written by Jayalalitha to MGR).She said that she was deeply hurt and shocked by the article, which claimed that she had written a letter to MGR. But there was no date in the letter and she was unable to re-collect whether she ever wrote such a letter. She had every reason to believe that the letter could be a clever forgery. The contents of the article clearly demonstrated the anxiety of some vested interests to spoil her image and reputation among the public. It could, therefore, be inferred, she believed, that the defendants Editor, Sub-Editor and Publisher of Nakkeeran –under the guise of releasing her personal letter, were attempting to defame her with ulterior motives. They had not disclosed the source of the original letters supposed to have been written by her. In any event, personal letters could not be published without the consent and concurrence of the author. It amounted to infringement and invasion of privacy of an individual.

The defendants had stated that many more such letters would be published in the coming issues. They however had no right to publish any letter purported to have been written by her without her consent. The defendants were liable to compensate her for mental agony and for defamation. She would be put to irreparable loss of reputation if the defendants were allowed to publish what they claimed as her original letters, she said, and asked for a decree directing the defendants to pay damages. She also wanted a permanent injunction restraining them from publishing any article about her or publishing any personal letter supposed to have been written by her either in Nakkeeran or in any other magazine.

Meanwhile, Jayalalitha announced on Tuesday that her party would not participate in all party meeting convened by Chief Minister M Karunanidhi on Wednesday to discuss measures to prevent recurrence of caste clashes in the southern districts of the state. In a statement here she blamed that the state government had ignored her pre-conditions forcing the AIADMK to take such a decision.

It may be recalled that Jayalalitha had set some preconditions for her party's participation in the meeting among which was that state minister Veerapandi Arumugam should withdraw his remark blaming the AIADMK for instigating caste clashes "without any evidence" .

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.