A Delhi court on Wednesday refused to urgently hear journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta's appeal against a gag order restraining him from publishing defamatory stories against Gautam Adani's Adani Enterprises Limited (AEL).

District Judge Rakesh Kumar Singh of the Rohini Court said that the injunction order was passed on September 6, and the matter can be heard on September 18 (Thursday) instead of today.

"It will be heard tomorrow at 10AM," the judge ultimately said.

The case was initially listed before District Judge Sunil Chaudhary. However, since he was on leave, it got transferred to Judge Singh.

While hearing the matter, Judge Singh questioned the urgency in the matter and asked why it cannot be heard by the regular judge.

"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," the Court remarked.

Meanwhile, Senior Advocate Trideep Pais appeared for Thakurta and stressed that Court has passed an overbroad order without hearing him.

"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," he submitted.

Senior Advocate Anurag Ahluwalia, appearing for Adani Enterprises, contended that there was no urgency in the case and it should be heard by Judge Singh.

"There is another appeal coming tomorrow. There is no urgency," Ahluwalia stated.

Ultimately, the Court listed it for hearing tomorrow.

In the order passed on September 6, Senior Civil Judge Anuj Kumar Singh of the Rohini Court had ordered removal of the defamatory content against AEL and also asked the journalists to refrain from publishing unverified and defamatory information about the company. 

The order was passed against Thakurta as well as journalists Ravi Nair, Abir Dasgupta, Ayaskant Das and Ayush Joshi.

The journalists then filed two separate challenges to the order. While Thakurta's plea was listed today, the case of other journalists may be taken up tomorrow.

The journalists have argued that AEL has not been mentioned in their news reports, and they only refer to Gautam Adani or the Adani Group.

"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,"the petition states.

Thakurta in his appeal has said that the Court passed an over-broad and all-encompassing restraining order without specifying which content was found to be defamatory. 

In the defamation suit before the civil judge, Adani Enterprises had alleged that certain journalists, activists and organizations damaged its reputation and cost its stakeholders billions of dollars by causing massive loss to its image, brand equity and credibility of India’s brand as a country.

Adani Enterprises argued that these journalists and activists have “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 referred to the articles published on paranjoy.in, adaniwatch.org and adanifiles.com.au and said that these websites have repeatedly published defamatory content against the company, the Adani Group, as well as its founder and chairman Gautam Adani.

The appeal on behalf of Thakurta was filed through advocates Apar Gupta, Indumugi C and Naman Kumar.

The appeal on behalf of Ravi Nair, Abir Dasgupta, Ayaskant Das and Ayush Joshi was filed by NG Law Chambers through advocate Nakul Gandhi.