Delhi Court Quashes Ex-Parte Gag Order Restraining Journalists From Reporting 'Defamatory' Publications On Adani Group

New Delhi: A Delhi court on Thursday quashed an earlier gag order that restricted four journalists from publishing alleged defamatory content on Adani Enterprises Limited (AEL), ruling it “not sustainable” as the defendants were not given a hearing.

District Judge Ashish Aggarwal of the Rohini Court passed the order on an appeal filed by four journalists, Ravi Nair, Abir Dasgupta, Ayaskant Das and Ayush Joshi, reported Live Law.

The judge pointed out that the articles had been publicly available for a substantial period of time and as such, the civil judge should have heard the journalists before ordering their removal.

"While articles and posts spanning a substantial period were questioned by plaintiff through the suit, the court didn't deem it fit to grant opportunity of hearing to defendants before passing impugned order. In my opinion the civil judge ought to have granted that opportunity before passing an order which had impact of prima facie declaring articles are defamatory and even directing their removal," the judge was qouted as saying by Live Law.

"The effect would be in the event of the court of senior civil judge subsequently finding that the articles are not defamatory, after defendants put forth their defence, it is not feasible that articles which have been removed would then be restored. Therefore in my opinion the trial court should have decided the prayers made by plaintiff after giving hearing opportunity to the defendants. The impugned order is not sustainable. Accordingly I allow the appeal and set aside the impugned order without any finding on merits of the case," he added.

Notably, another judge of the same court has reserved verdict on journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta's appeal against the gag order.

Advocates Vrinda Grover, Nakul Gandhi, Soutik Banerjee, Mujeeb, and Tanish Gupta represented the journalists in the case.