No amount of damages can redeem the damage to the reputation of any person and merely because there has been previous publications on the same issue, the same does not permit any repetition of prima facie defamatory allegations, observed the Bombay high court while directing two individuals to take down defamatory content uploaded on social media against Serum Institute of India and its CEO Adar Poonalwalla.
HC restrains individuals from posting defamatory content
Justice Riyaz Chagla, on Monday, in an interim order, also restrained two individuals from further posting defamatory content noting that that SII and Poonawalla have been considered to have saved four million lives in India with their vaccine.
“I am of the prima facie view that the contents are per se defamatory. The vaccine is not banned. No case is made out by the defendants," the judge said in a 48-page order.
The interim order was passed by the HC while hearing a defamation suit filed by SII seeking restrain on two individuals and their organisations -- Yohan Tengra, his organisation Anarchy for Freedom India, and Ambar Koiri and his organisation Awaken India Movement -- who have been allegedly posting erroneous content against the company and Poonawalla.
Court directs defendants to issue unconditional apology
The court has also directed the defendants to issue an unconditional apology stating the defamatory contents were baseless, unsubstantiated and unwarranted.
The suit will be taken up for final hearing at a later date.
The HC while directing the defendants to delete all their posts and content against the company and temporarily restrained them from posting any such content further until the suit is heard and decided.
The court said that after going through the contents posted by the defendants show there are words used against SII claiming it has “murdered millions by their vaccine”, that the company and Adar Poonawalla are consequently “murderers and criminals” and that the company should be shut down and Poonawalla should be arrested and put in jail.
Serum vaccine saved millions of life: HC
“It was necessary for these defendants to produce material to justify these allegations against the plaintiffs (SII and Poonawalla),” justice Chagla noted.
Relying on the affidavit submitted by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in November 2022 in the Supreme Court by the Union government in another matter, the HC said that the vaccine produced by AstraZeneca - SII have saved millions of lives.
“Far from the plaintiffs being 'murderers' and 'criminals', the plaintiffs have been considered to have saved four millions lives in India,” it added.
Defendants had relied on a petition filed by one Dilip Lunawat against SII alleging this his daughter, a medical student, had died due to side-effects of Covishield vaccine on March 1, 2021. Lunwata had demanded compensation of Rs 1,000 crore from SII. The petition is still pending.
Justice Chagla said that mere fact that the defamatory statement might have been made in a pleading/affidavit against SII and Poonawalla, “does not give any entitlement to the Defendant to repeat the same”. “The Defendants have no immunity in an action for defamation… that every republication of a libel is a new libel and each publisher is answerable for his act to the same extent as if the defamatory statement originated with him,” he added.
The SII in its suit claimed the defendants had been posting and circulating defamatory content against the company and its COVID-19 vaccine Covishield. It claimed that the defendants had also been posting incorrect information that implied the Covishield vaccine was the cause of deaths of multiple persons due to side-effects.
SII had accused two individuals of posting false and defamatory content
The SII in its suit claimed the defendants -- Yohan Tengra, his organisation Anarchy for Freedom India, and Ambar Koiri and his organisation Awaken India Movement -- had been posting and circulating defamatory content against the company and its COVID-19 vaccine Covishield.
The suit said the defendants had also been posting incorrect information that implied the Covishield vaccine was the cause of deaths of multiple persons due to side-effects.
The posts were not only targeting the SII, but also its Chief Executive Officer Adar Poonawalla, it said.
The plea sought the HC to restrain the defendants from publishing, circulating any content against the SII or its employees.
