O'Dwyer v. Nair Libel Case

O'Dwyer v. Nair Libel Case, also known as the O'Dwyer-Nair Trial was a libel case held in London in English law against the Indian politician and lawyer Sir C. Sankaran Nair, by former Lieutenant Governor of the Punjab, Sir Michael O'Dwyer. The case arose from statements made in Nair's 1922 book Gandhi and Anarchy, in which he criticised O'Dwyer's administration and held him responsible for the events leading to the Punjab Disturbances, particularly the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of 1919.

The preliminary hearing was held in October 1923 at the Lahore High Court. The case was later brought before Justice Henry McCardie in the King's Bench Division in April 1924, five years after the massacre. Though not formally on trial, Reginald Dyer's role in the massacre was central to the proceedings, with the case often viewed as a proxy examination of his actions in Amritsar. After a five-week trial, the jury delivered its verdict on 29 May 1924, with all jurors except Harold Laski ruling in favour of O'Dwyer. Nair was ordered to pay damages and legal costs. The outcome of the trial renewed public scrutiny of British actions in Punjab.