Delhi High Court Concludes Contempt of Court Case Involving Times Group and Republic TV
In a recent development, the Delhi High Court, presided over by Justice C Hari Shankar, has closed the contempt of court case involving the Times Group and Republic TV. The decision came after the Times Group opted to withdraw its plea.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!The core of the dispute revolved around the use of the tagline “Nation Wants To Know” by Republic TV. Justice C Hari Shankar observed that Republic TV’s utilization of the tagline appeared to be in compliance with the guidelines set by the Court’s order from October 2020.
To provide some background, on October 23, 2020, the Delhi High Court had issued an interim injunction that barred ARG Outlier Media, the parent company of Republic TV, from using the trademark ‘News Hour’. However, the Court did not impose any restrictions on the use of the tagline
‘Nation Wants To Know’.
This decision was based on the Times Group’s assertion that Arnab Goswami, the face of Republic TV, “is free to use the same as part of his speech/presentation of any news channel, etc.”
Furthermore, the Court had stipulated that if Republic TV decided to employ the tagline as a trademark for any of their products or services, they would be required to maintain and regularly submit accounts of such usage through an affidavit.
The subsequent events saw the Times Group filing a contempt of court application under Order XXXIX Rule 2A of the Code of Civil Procedure (CPC). They alleged that ARG Outlier Media had violated the October 2020 order. The contention was that Republic TV was using the tagline ‘Nation Wants To Know’ as a trademark without maintaining and filing the necessary accounts as mandated by the Court.
Representatives of the Times Group argued that the defendants were intentionally using the tagline to link it with Arnab Goswami. In response, Senior Advocate Malvika Trivedi, who represented the defendants, countered this claim. She highlighted that the 2020 order clearly stated that they were allowed to use the tagline as part of their news presentation. She also pointed out that the evidence (screenshots) presented by the Times Group in their contempt application had been previously submitted during the injunction hearing.
In light of these arguments and the withdrawal of the plea by the Times Group, the Delhi High Court decided to close the case, marking an end to this chapter of the legal tussle between the two media giants.
