Businessman Anil Ambani has filed a ₹2 crore defamation suit before the Delhi High Court, accusing Times of India, Economic Times (ET) and Press Trust of India (PTI) of sensationalised news reporting on ongoing CBI and ED investigations against his companies.
The Court on Wednesday sought the response of Bennett Coleman and Company Limited (BCCL) and the editors of Times of India, Economic Times and Press Trust of India (PTI) in the matter.
Justice Subramonium Prasad passed the order, directing the news agencies and journalists to file their response and posted the matter for hearing on August 24.
Ambani has claimed that defamatory articles were published against him by TOI, ET, PTI, etc. in relation to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) probes into a loan fraud case concerning the Reliance companies owned by him.
He has argued that such false, malicious and misleading media publications has caused serious harm to his reputation and goodwill.
The defamation suit adds that such media articles and videos relied on unverified sources, conjecture and speculative assertions to portray Ambani as personally involved in alleged irregularities connected to Reliance Communications Limited, Reliance Home Finance Limited and Reliance Commercial Finance Limited.
It also contends that the investigations concern these corporate entities and not Ambani in his personal capacity, adding that he was not involved in their day-to-day management during the relevant period.
The suit further states that legal notices dated November 28, 2025, and December 5, 2025, demanding the removal of such content and an unconditional apology, were ignored, prompting the present legal action before the Court.
Ambani’s counsel advocate Tanmaya Mehta today requested Court to restrain the media agencies from quoting court's oral observations in their news reports.
"At least some direction to the effect that oral observations of court that are not in written order should not be cited. They are quoting oral observations. The law is settled that you cannot quote oral observations," Mehta said.
The Court refused to pass any such interim restraint order.
"Same order. Simple, not a single stay," Justice Prasad said.
Notably, Ambani has sued news platform NDTV and news agency IANS - both owned by the Adani group - over their reporting as well. As part of this case, Ambani has also told the High Court that the Adani Group wants to take over his companies, and that NDTV has published 72 pointed articles against him in the last few months to facilitate its ultimate owners' "predatory strategies."