Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma of Delhi High Court on Tuesday recused from hearing a plea filed by Trinamool Congress (TMC) Member of Parliament (MP) Mahua Moitra challenging the criminal defamation case filed against her by Zee Media.

The Court said that the matter be listed before another bench next week.

"I think in this case also, Mr. [Sudhir] Chaudhary will be the concerned person. I think I shouldn’t deal with this. I will list it before another bench. Interim orders to continue," Justice Sharma said.

Notably, Justice Sharma had earlier recused from hearing a plea concerning Moitra's defamation case against Chaudhary.

The dispute arose when Chaudhary (who was working with Zee News then), in a broadcast on Zee News aired on July 2, 2019, alleged that a speech delivered by Moitra in Parliament on rising fascism in India was plagiarised from an article authored by Martin Longman, which had appeared on an American website, Washington Monthly.

Moitra said that her speech elaborated and explained in detail how the seven signs of fascism apply to the prevailing situation in India.

The segment was aired despite Moitra expressly clarifying that the same was taken from a poster at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in America.

While Moitra filed a defamation case against Zee and anchor Sudhir Chaudhary for the broadcast, Zee filed a case against her for calling the news organisation a thief.

Senior Advocate Vikas Pahwa and advocate Adit Pujari appeared for Moitra today and stated that soon after the speech, Chaudhary did a programme attacking the speech.

"Later, a journalist from Zee went up to Moitra outside Parliament and said that this was chori ka bhashan (stolen speech). He said it four to five times, and she said in retaliation, 'Main chor nahi hu aapka channel chor hai (I am not a thief, your channel is a thief)'. And then the channel goes and files a defamation case," Pahwa said.