Delhi court refused to hear journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta’s urgent appeal against the gag order on publishing content about Adani Enterprises. The matter is now listed for hearing tomorrow at 10 AM.
New Delhi: A Delhi court on Wednesday refused to take up on an urgent basis the appeal filed by journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta against a gag order that stopped him from publishing alleged defamatory stories about Gautam Adani’s company, Adani Enterprises Limited (AEL).
The matter came before District Judge Rakesh Kumar Singh of Rohini Court. The judge said that since the injunction order was already passed on September 6, there was no immediate reason to hear the appeal today itself. Instead, he listed the matter for September 18, Thursday.
“It will be heard tomorrow at 10AM,”
the judge ultimately said.
Originally, the case was listed before District Judge Sunil Chaudhary. However, because he was on leave, it was transferred to Judge Singh.
While hearing the matter, Judge Singh questioned the need for urgency.
He remarked,
“What if your client doesn’t publish for two days? Is it a matter of life and death? What if the published work is removed? Would the client’s business suffer? What if the case is heard tomorrow at 10 o’clock.”
Senior Advocate Trideep Pais, who appeared for Thakurta, argued that the order of the lower court was too broad and was passed without giving his client a proper chance to present his side.
He said,
“The Court does not mention which part, URL is defamatory. Court has not shown what is that material which is false, defamatory and why it should be injuncted. It is the duty of the plaintiff to show what is defamatory and the Court to rule on what is defamatory.”
On the other side, Senior Advocate Anurag Ahluwalia, representing Adani Enterprises, opposed the request for urgent hearing. He told the court,
“There is another appeal coming tomorrow. There is no urgency.”
After hearing both sides, the judge fixed the matter for hearing on Thursday.
Earlier, on September 6, Senior Civil Judge Anuj Kumar Singh of Rohini Court had directed that the allegedly defamatory content against AEL should be removed. He had also restrained the journalists from publishing unverified or defamatory information about the company in the future.
This order was passed not only against Thakurta but also against journalists Ravi Nair, Abir Dasgupta, Ayaskant Das and Ayush Joshi.
The journalists have challenged this order through two separate appeals. Thakurta’s plea was taken up today, while the challenge filed by the other four journalists is likely to be heard on Thursday.
In their petitions, the journalists have argued that their reports never specifically referred to Adani Enterprises Limited, but only mentioned Gautam Adani or the Adani Group in general. One part of the appeal states,
“It is submitted that a bare perusal of the reproduced portions of the alleged defamatory articles clearly reveals that at no place has the Plaintiff been called out, referred to, or even remotely mentioned. In each and every impugned publication, the references are confined exclusively to Mr. Gautam Adani or to the Adani Group.”
Thakurta, in his appeal, also stressed that the trial court’s order was extremely wide and did not specify which content was defamatory. He said the court had restrained him without pointing out the particular words, articles or links which were found objectionable.
In the defamation suit before the lower court, Adani Enterprises had claimed that certain journalists, activists and organisations caused serious harm to its reputation, resulting in huge losses for its shareholders and damaging India’s global image.
The company alleged that these journalists and activists were
“aligned with anti-India interests and have been continuously targeting Adani Enterprises’ infrastructure and energy projects which are critical to India’s infrastructure and energy security and have disrupted these projects with ulterior motives.”
AEL also referred to articles on websites such as paranjoy.in, adaniwatch.org, and adanifiles.com.au, arguing that these platforms repeatedly carried defamatory content about the company, the Adani Group, and its founder Gautam Adani.
Thakurta’s appeal was filed through advocates Apar Gupta, Indumugi C, and Naman Kumar. The appeal on behalf of journalists Ravi Nair, Abir Dasgupta, Ayaskant Das and Ayush Joshi was filed by NG Law Chambers through advocate Nakul Gandhi.
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